The European Commission is presenting a fresh aid package to alleviate the farmgate price crisis to agriculture ministers from the EU’s 28 member states in Brussels this Monday.

Arriving at the meeting, Slovakian Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matecna, who is chairing her first council of agriculture ministers under her country’s rotating presidency of the EU, said the new Commission package was expected “as there are several problems in markets, especially with milk production”.

The Spanish minister, Isabel García Tejerina, said: “What we have been asking the Commission for several months is to rebalance supply and demand so that prices recover. For this, I expect the Commission to present measures that act on supply. Demand has certainly improved, and this is a positive aspect, but to rebalance supply and demand, we want control supply measures to reduce production with incentives from the Commission.”

German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt said he was happy that the Commission was taking on board the proposals he had made with his French and German counterparts in Warsaw last month in the lead-up to this meeting.

The Warsaw agreement calls for European incentives to cut milk production as well as increased market intervention through intervention and private storage aid.

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Irish position

These comments go against the Irish position, which has consistently rejected proposals to cut milk production. At a recent meeting of EU agriculture ministers, Minister Michael Creed said that “there is no solution in supply-side control”.

Within Ireland, the IFA has opposed proposed milk supply control measures. “Global factors govern the milk price paid to most, if not all, EU dairy farmers. Unilateral production reductions in the EU will not address output growth in the US, nor will it address the strain on demand from the extended Russian ban, the slower buying growth from China and lower oil revenues,” said IFA dairy chairman Sean O’Leary.

The ICMSA, on the contrary, is in favour of incentivised production cuts to rebalance dairy markets.

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EU ministers call for milk supply cuts ahead of aid package meeting

Three heavyweight European agriculture ministers talked to reporters on their way into their council meeting with Commissioner Phil Hogan, and they all called for measures to cut production.