EU halves its milk powder mountain
The European Union has halved the amount of milk powder it has accumulated in Europe due to falling prices. Of the 380,000 tonnes bought since the beginning of the crisis in 2015, 190,000 have been returned to the market, the EU Commission announced on Friday. Prices had stabilised.
In view of an oversupply and falling prices over the past three years, the Brussels authorities had had skimmed milk powder bought up and stored. The aim was to reduce the quantity on the market and stabilise prices. In recent months, parts of the product have been put back into circulation via public bidding procedures.
The crisis had several causes: A few years ago, the EU abolished the milk quota that had previously limited production in order to create more competition. In addition, there was a decline in Chinese imports and the Russian import ban on a whole range of European agricultural products. Moscow had imposed an import ban because of the EU economic sanctions in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014.
The EU average price for raw milk delivered by farmers had since fallen to around 25 cents per kilo. According to the EU Commission, it is now around 35 cents /asa/DP/tos (dpa).
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