Processors placed more than 11,000t of SMP into the scheme ahead of its closure for 2017 at the end of September, out of the 30,000t total used this year. Most quantities came from Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Lithuania.

No Irish SMP entered intervention this year.

The total volumes sold into the scheme remain below the 40,000t used in 2015 and the massive 334,000t seen at the peak of the milk price crisis last year.

In its latest short-term outlook, the European Commission forecasts that its intervention stockpile could see “a potential release of 150,000t in 2018” as demand for SMP picks up.

Exports of the commodity are expected to increase by 6% next year after a 35% recovery in 2017 over last year’s slump. Meanwhile, processors are expected to grow the production of fat-filled milk powders, which combine SMP with vegetable fat.

This is against the backdrop of increasing EU milk production, now estimated at close to 1bn extra litres this year.

The European Commission notes that most of this extra milk is currently processed into cheese “because despite record high butter prices, best returns are obtained when processing milk into value added products like cheese” with Asian demand driving European cheese exports.

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