Biggest Eu Dairy Expanders – Including Ireland – Not Most Reliant on Intervention, This Must Weigh in Debate on Production Management

IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Sean O’Leary said research produced by AHDB, the British Teagasc, has shown that while the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany accounted for the largest amount of extra milk produced in first year of the post-quota era, they had actually matched their production expansion with real marketing plans, and so were not the member states most reliant on intervention and APS for this extra milk.

“AHDB has shown that the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany, between then, only have 16% of their extra milk sitting in intervention or APS schemes. This compares with Belgium at 86%, and France with 68% of their milk reliant on those market support measures,” Mr O’Leary said.

“I believe this fact should weigh more heavily in the on-going simplistic discussions about the wisdom of production management as an obvious solution to the dairy crisis,” he said.

“It is simply a fact that expanding production just because one can, and without a marketing plan, is not wise, but doing so because there is a sustainable long-term market for it and a plan to develop it, such as Ireland has, is a very different proposition,” he concluded.