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Poland has become the first EU member state to offer skim milk powder (SMP) into public intervention in 2017.
It is the first country to offer SMP to the measure since September 2016, after there was a steady slowdown in offers.
The latest figures from the European Milk Market Observatory (MMO) show that Poland offered 472t of SMP to the measure for the week ending 2 April.
In 2016, Poland accounted for over 35,000t of the 335,000t of SMP offered to intervention.
Last year, Ireland offered almost 36,000t of SMP to the measure.
An assessment of the EU stock levels by the European Commission has revealed a slight rebuilding of private stocks for SMP.
In view of the seasonal production ramp-up, the MMO Economic Board expects offers of SMP to public intervention to increase in the coming weeks.
Tender procedure
In November, a tender procedure to release the first amounts (22,150t) of SMP out of public intervention stocks took place. Only 40t of SMP were sold through this first tender.
Since then, there has been a further six tenders, with no further SMP being sold.
The move to release the first volumes of SMP in November reflected the encouraging signs of recovery being seen on the European milk market, the European Commission said at the time.
Through intervention, the European Commission buys in SMP surpluses on the market at a fixed price.
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