According to European Commission figures, European milk processors placed 36,361t of skimmed milk powder (SMP) into intervention through this week’s tender, despite the price uncertainty associated with this system.

It is the second time this year that the Commission has used a tender to take milk powder into intervention while the ceiling for the more stable fixed-price buying-in system is raised after being hit. The previous tender, at the end of April, attracted 27,038t of SMP.

This week’s tender marked the first time intervention was accessible since the current 218,000t fixed-price ceiling was reached on 24 May. The volumes offered were the largest in any single week so far this year.

Ireland placed the fourth largest volume of SMP into intervention, offering 4,268t. France, Germany and the Netherlands were the largest contributors.

Intervention reform

On Thursday, the European People’s Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, which is the largest and includes Fine Gael, called for intervention reform.

“The current intervention system is too static,” the MEPs said. “The Commission is therefore called upon to propose a new ‘ad-hoc’ intervention system to flexibly remove, according to market conditions, the necessary quantities of butter and skimmed milk powder in a quick and unannounced procedure, at market prices. We call for a flexible mechanism for deciding on the possible temporary raising of intervention prices and increasing of private storage aid.”

The EPP group also called for EU-wide compulsory milk production cuts to address the current oversupply crisis.

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