Pressure for skimmed milk stocks to be sold

With milk prices better and demand for butter and cheese booming it is tempting to assume that the problems of the dairy sector are in the past.

However the European Commission has a big hangover from last year, and it is causing growing concern and pressure for action.

As a result of being forced into intervention support well beyond normal limits, it has almost 400,000 tonnes of skim milk powder in store.

To date it has refused to sell this at prices below market levels, but this is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

The farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has said disposal will have to move up the agenda, and he has warned that the intervention buying limit for 2018, currently 109,000 tonnes, will have to be set to zero if stocks remain in store. n The European Commission’s short term outlook for most commodities is encouraging. It says that despite an indifferent harvest grain production will rise by five million tonnes, with the oilseed harvest set to be the second highest of the past 10 years.

It says beef production will be stable this year and will decline slightly next year, but by less than 1%.

It says pigmeat production will dip by around 1% this year, but it is warning that exports will fall dramatically next year, by almost 10%.

EU milk production will be up by around a million tonnes, but this is all going into cheese. n Reports in Brussels suggest the vote on the future of glyphosate could happen next Wednesday, at a meeting of member state experts.

The European Commission proposal is to re-licence the product for 10 years. This has already been reduced from 15, and approval is supported by scientists. However the qualified majority needed for a positive decision remains uncertain.

Austria has said it will vote against – a political decision because an election is looming. France is pressing for a reduction from the 10 years as the price of its vote. Germany is undecided, because its government make-up remains uncertain.

Grain production will rise by five million tonnes.