FDBusiness.com

A total of 80,424.05 tonnes of the skimmed milk powder bought into public stock by the European Commission since 2015 were sold in the latest tender sale, bringing the remaining stock to around 22,000 tonnes out of the original 380,000 tonnes, stockpiled since the crisis that hit the dairy sector in 2015. In effect, almost 95 per cent of the original stock has now been disposed of through a process of prudent and responsible management.

Public intervention, managed by the European Commission, helped to remove surpluses in a very imbalanced market scenario, playing a decisive role in stabilising prices between 2015 and 2017. This led to a total of 380,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder being stored in warehouses across the European Union. The Commission opened at the end of 2016 a process of monthly and later bi-monthly public tenders to gradually and cautiously put these stocks back into the market to avoid any kind of disruption or negative effect on producers.

Agriculture and rural development Commissioner Phil Hogan says: “The latest tender is further evidence that the Commission’s measures, put in place since the 2015-2016 milk crisis, have been effective and are paying off. I decided on this course of action with the clear aim that we would get rid of most stocks without putting pressure on prices and that we would consolidate the recovery for European dairy farmers. Market balance has always been our priority in this process and we see now that our storage warehouses are getting empty, without weighing on the market, as many had predicted.”