EU Dairy Settles as the World Outside Shakes
UK - Prices on the EU dairy market are expected to stabilise during the remainder of 2008 despite wider-global supply concerns, says the president of the European Dairy Association (EDA).
1 July 2008
2 minute read
According to Food Production Daily, during a presentation given to the EU parliament on Wednesday, Veijo Meriläinen said that prospects for the bloc's dairy farms and processors appeared mostly positive, though challenges lie ahead for processors and farmers.
He claimed that although demand for milk and other dairy products was expected to remain strong, uncertainty will remain over where additional production may come from.
Meriläinen suggested that there is a need in Europe to create a sustainable milk supply as well as dealing with nutrition issues over labelling and health claims, if competitiveness is to improve in the industry, reported Food Production Daily.
Then urgency for addressing these concerns has been driven in part by ongoing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms that have resulted in an increasingly market driven industry, Meriläinen stated.
The reforms require a number of commitments from producers in a bid to improve profitability within the market through deregulation of the existing systems, including abolishing export refunds and other market protection measures.
As a result of these measures, the EDA said that extreme price volatility had occurred during the first half of 2008 and the last six months of 2007.
Commodity costs were found to be up between 40 to 80 per cent over the period, which in turn led to a 20 per cent hike in processed good prices, the association added.
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