EDA gives presentation to EU parliament

“Veijo Meriloinen, the president of the European Dairy Association (EDA), said in a presentation to the EU parliament that EU dairy prices are expected to stabilise during the last half of 2008 despite wider-global supply concerns.

He notes, “With respect to production, there is a series of uncertainties: will the growth in the US proceed, or will increasing feed prices have their effect? Are the growth limitations of Oceania structural? Will growing production in India find its way on to the world market and what about South America and former Soviet countries?”

There are good opportunities for profitable development of the EU dairy sector, but, to make use of these opportunities, conditions for the dairy sector must be optimised, he says. “There is a need in Europe to create a sustainable milk supply as well as dealing with nutrition issues over labelling and health claims, if competitiveness is to improve in the industry.”

He also mentions that Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms have resulted in an increasingly market driven industry and that the reforms require a number of commitments from producers in a bid to improve profitability within the market through deregulation of the existing systems, including abolishing export refunds and other market protection measures.

“Major investments on farms and by companies in innovation, processing plants and in the markets will be needed to ensure for the industry profitable development up to and after 2015,” he states. “Therefore, full commitment to the principle of abolition is needed now to give the industry the right framework for their investment decisions.”