EUROPE – Western European dairy processors can only profit from the 2004 expansion of the EU, according to research by the German agricultural society Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG).

The ten accession countries will bring an estimated 66 million new consumers into the EU and there will undoubtedly be opportunities for the current member states, as the new members will not be able to supply enough milk for their inhabitants.

In Poland, for example, the milk production quota for the first year under EU regulations is 9.4 million tonnes, whereas the consumption of milk and milk products is more than 10.8m tonnes.

In Hungary, the annual consumption of milk is 2.1m tonnes, which is100,000 tonnes more than the country will be allowed to produce under the EU quota system.

Eckhard Heuser, managing director of the German milk industry association Milchindustrieverband (MIV), feels that exports of dairy products from the west to the new members will outweigh imports coming in the opposite direction.

“We expect that we will be in a position to further expand other dairy markets in eastern European countries that do not belong to the EU,” he added.