Feb 26th, 2009

ICMSA demand change of course on mik quota policy as French indicate support for quotas beyond 2015

The President of the ICMSA, Jackie Cahill, has demanded that Minister Smith seek retention of the Milk Quotas and support his French counterpart who today has come out in full support of Milk Quotas beyond 2015.

Mr Cahill said that as milk prices drop to their lowest relative level ever, it is reassuring to see that there is somebody in power in Europe aware of what is happening in the milk sector and with some grasp of the action needed to save dairy farmers' incomes.

The ICMSA president repeated his strongly held view that the Minister's and the Department's advocacy of extra quotas is outdated - if it was ever valid - and is now a positively dangerous policy which has the potential to bankrupt dairy farmers. He said that the Department was tinkering around with regulations which will at best have only the most marginal of impacts. Mr Cahill pointed out that in the last two weeks alone over 2,500 dairy farmers had attended ICMSA meetings - including one addressed by the Minister - and not a single person had called for the abolition of quotas or increased quotas as instruments in this hilariously mis-named 'soft landing'. The soft landing promised by the Minister and his officials has proven to be a crash landing, the consequence of which have yet to be fully seen but will be catastrophic for dairy farmers, the only group in the sector whose incomes will be affected, noted Mr. Cahill.

Mr. Cahill called on all sectors of the dairy industry to demand a rethink by the Minister so that stability and viable farm gate milk prices can be restored in the dairy sector.

"The French Agriculture Minister, Michel Barnier has today done us a major service. Let's grasp the opportunity so that sound policies can again direct the development of our dairy industry rather than the nonsense, peddled as policy, that we can produce milk at world prices", he concluded.

BACK TO 2009 ARCHIVES