Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Milk production down as farmers move out of the sector
Maltese farmers produced over a thousand tonnes of milk less last year compared to the previous year, according to details published by the European Commission yesterday.
The reduction in the production of raw milk is being attributed to the number of farmers who moved out of the sector in the past 12 months, following the enforcement of more stringent hygiene rules by the EU. During the last marketing year, ending at the end of last March, there were 143 milk producers in Malta, nine fewer compared to the previous 12 months.
This led to milk production slipping from 41,237 tonnes in 2006/2007 to 40,085 tonnes last year.
Last January, the government gave 14 farmers supplying milk to the Malta Dairy Products (MDP) a three-month warning to either put their house in order or forfeit their permits.
According to the Ministry for Rural Affairs, the majority of the farmers involved brought their farms up to date with EU rules while the rest decided to close shop.
Malta's quota is 48,698 tonnes although no real shortage of milk or its derivative products has been reported.
According to EU rules, cow's milk is marketed on the basis of quotas initially introduced in order to achieve a balance between supply and demand and curb surpluses.
Producers who overrun their quota have to pay a surplus levy in the member state concerned.
The quota system will be abolished from 2015.
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james cairns
Oct 27th 2011, 17:50
Why do you think British milk farmers went out of business? It was mainly down to the EUSSRs ridiculous quotas. This the same EUSSR who gave us a food mountain consisting of 30,000tonnes of butter, 109,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder that all joined 2.3 million hectolitres of inferior wine ( enough to fill 90 olympic sized swimming pools! Then there's all that fish dumping (thankfully stopped) but at one time North sea discards were running at 880,000 tonnes of dead fish. Or the equivalent of harpooning 200 sperm whales every month, then just leaving them to float dead on the sea! So provided the Maltese dairy farmers speak nicely to their cows ie. please don't give too much milk, everything will be fine!
l Galea
Oct 14th 2008, 10:51
Additional Information from euobserver headline news http://euobserver.com/tickers/3970
Seven EU states face fines for exceeding milk quotas
Today @ 09:32 CET
Seven EU governments - Germany, Italy, Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - face fines amounting to €340 million for exceeding milk production quotas, the commission said on Monday. Italy alone is to pay €160.6 million of the sum, and Germany €101.7 million.
l Galea
Oct 14th 2008, 09:45
So instead of using the excess milk to make butter, cheese and other dairy products and sending them to poor countries for free distribution, the eu inposes quotas and fines milk producers for exceeding their quotas.
Nice eu social conscience.