THE European Commission has levied fines on three member states, Denmark,
Netherlands and Cyprus, for exceeding their 2009-2010 milk quotas. Fines
amounting to a whopping € 19 million were levied on these three member states,
that accounted for an overrun of 70,000 tonnes of their national quotas,
according to provisional figures published by the EC.
Cow's
milk is marketed in the European Union on the basis of quotas. A milk quota is
the maximum quantity of milk a farmer is permitted to market in a year free of
levy. Milk quotas, intended to restrain rising milk production, were introduced
in the EC in April 1984 initially for a five year period but kept on getting
extended.
Each
member State has two quotas, one for deliveries to dairies, the other one for
direct sales to consumers. These quantities are broken down among producers
(individual quotas) in each member State.
Last
year fines of €99 million were levied as against fines amounting to €340 million
in the previous year. Overall, global EU milk production finished about 7 per
cent below global quota volumes as against a margin of around 4 per cent in the
2008-09 quota year.
The
end of the quota regime is expected in 2015.
|
