Archive Article: 2002/06/14
Powder value fear
Skimmed milk powder prices could slip again as EU sales into intervention reached the maximum ceiling allowed and Brussels moved to suspend the scheme.
Under normal trading arrangements, manufacturers are able to intervene up to 109,000t of SMP from when stores open in March until they close again at the end of August.
But world markets have been so depressed amd the scheme so popular that the allowance has already been used up.
As farmers weekly went to Press, the commission was planning to replace standard intervention at full support prices with a tender scheme. Officials were due to vote on the issue at yesterdays (Thursday) milk management committee meeting in Brussels.
Irish Farmers Association president John Dillon held crisis talks with EU officials at a farmers rally in Strasbourg this week. "Commissioner Franz Fischler must respond by strengthening EU dairy market supports, including open-ended intervention for SMP, increased export refunds and processing aids and higher EU intervention prices to put an effective floor under producer prices," he said.