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EU Ministers Agree to Boost Milk Production |
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 |
BRUSSELS, Belgium: European Union farm ministers approved an urgent plan on Monday to boost milk production in order to stabilize prices and meet increased demand for dairy products in Europe and Asia.
Officials said the ministers supported a 2 percent increase in yearly milk quota production or an extra 2.84 million tons, which comes into affect April 1.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the increase in production was needed.
"We have seen clear increases in milk prices over the past year and a growing call for higher quotas," she said.
Fischer Boel has suggested EU nations consider scrapping production quotas altogether by 2015 under reforms being drafted, which will be discussed in May.
Increased demand for cereals and dairy products already has risen higher than expected this year, causing shortages of animal feed which have pushed up prices for milk and other food products in European supermarkets.
The European Commission said demand for milk is expected to continue rising over the next six years and that decades-old production rules need to be scrapped for European farmers to stay competitive.
The increased production will be welcomed in the largest milk producing countries, including France, Italy, Britain, the Netherlands and Poland.
EU-wide quotas were set up under the so-called Common Agricultural Policy in the 1960s to ensure a fair distribution of production, with guaranteed market price and access. However, EU governments are now under increased pressure from global trade partners and farming sectors to overhaul EU farm policy further after previous agricultural reforms were implemented in 2003.
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