The French Government has provided extra funding to incentivise its dairy farmers to cut milk production in the coming months.
France received €49.9m in EU funding for the measure and this week its Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll confirmed that the French Government would double that amount.
Le Foll says this matching contribution will strengthen the European measure of output reduction by providing an additional 10 cents per kilo unproduced.
To avoid a spike in the slaughtering of dairy cows and a destabilization of the meat market theFrench Government has said the national supplement will be limited to the first 5% of production cut by farmers.
In this way, under the French scheme for the first 5% of production cutbacks, producers reducing their production will receive a compensation of 24 cents per kilo. Beyond this limit, the compensation will be 14 euro cents per kilo.
The Department of Agriculture in Ireland has yet to confirm the final details of the Irish Milk Reduction Scheme.
Minister Creed recently said that his focus has now turned to implementation of the measure at national level.
He said some Irish dairy farmers may wish to avail of the aid to temporarily curb production and my Department will continue to engage with stakeholders including co-ops and farm organisations now on how best to implement this.
The Minister also said that the €11m direct aid package offers an opportunity to deliver a meaningful measure which can assist farmers.
“The priority must be to deliver a measure which achieves value for money while offering structural assistance to farmers in helping to tackle ongoing liquidity issues.
“My Department will be consulting with stakeholders and I expect to be making further announcements on both of these measures in the very near future,” he said.
