European Commission presents third package of measures to support dairy sector, with a provision of 500 million euros

The main goal for these measures is to rebalance supply and demand and thereby recover the prices received by farmers when selling their milk.

The package of measures consists of the following:

• A measure to reduce production - with a provision of 150 million euros - that is open to all farmers in the European Union under the same terms, which will reduce milk production based on a baseline period.
• A direct subsidy based on compliance with commitments linked to market stability, to which 350 million euros will be allocated, of which 14.7 million euros will correspond to Spain based on the weighting represented by Spanish production in total EU production.
• The subsidy associated with dairy cattle production, which rose by 56% in Spain in 2015 to 94 million euros, will be disassociated with the requirement to maintain dairy cows in 2017, in order for the subsidy not to become an incentive to increase production.
• As from 16 October 2016, regional governments will be able to bring forward 70% of the direct payments and 85% of the subsidies for rural development associated with land surface area, even if in situ checks have not been completed, in order to improve the overall liquidity of crop and livestock farmers.
• Intervention purchases and private dairy product, butter, powdered skimmed milk and cheese storage subsidies that were going to expire in September will be extended until the end of December and February 2017, respectively.
• In terms of the fruit and vegetable sector, and in response to a repeated request from Spain, the European Commission undertakes to increase the withdrawal prices for fruit and vegetable producer organisations.
  

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Affairs, Isabel García Tejerina, undertook to work with the European Commission to facilitate the application of these measures so that their effects on the prices received by farmers will become effective as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the Spanish minister underlined the importance of the European Commission's commitment to increase the withdrawal prices for fruit and vegetable producer organisations in response to a Spanish request, which has been made at a time when the spotlight is on the livestock farming crises being experienced in a large number of Member States.