EU to up milk quotas

According to the European Commission, EU farmers should be able to produce more subsidised milk next year to help temper spiralling dairy prices and cushion the blow of the quota scheme’s planned abolition in 2015. It is set to recommend that milk quotas be increased by two per cent from 1 April, 2008.

“We have seen a sharp rise in milk prices over the past year and a growing call for higher quotas,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel says. “As demand for dairy products would continue to rise, we need to equip our farmers to meet that increased demand.”
Commission experts have forecast that the EU will need an extra 5.5 million tonnes of milk up to 2014 to satisfy growing internal demand for dairy products, particularly for cheese. If ministers agree to the two-percent quota rise from next April, it should create an additional 2.84 million tonnes, they say.
For months, several European Union governments have suggested higher allowances from 2008/09 ahead of the scheduled abolition of production quotas, as a response to soaring prices — particularly for butter and skimmed milk powder.