IFA Makes Case For ‘Soft Landing’

IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Kevin Kiersey was in Brussels last week to meet with other European farm organisations members of COPA, and the EU Commission officials in charge of the review of the ‘soft landing’.

Mr Kiersey made a case for the recognition of the absence of a ‘soft landing’ in Ireland in the context of the review, and the need for additional measures to help Irish and other dairy farmers in the EU deal with rising quota prices and superlevy before 2015. However, he warned that, with dairy markets softening in 2012, both the EU Commission and the majority of European farm organisations had hardened their position on the topic.

“We are totally committed to feeding into this year’s review to obtain recognition of our problem, but prudent dairy planning on Irish farms must assume no change before 2015. If our campaign is successful, it will be a bonus. We have persuasively articulated the case on behalf of Irish dairy farmers to help our European colleagues and the EU Commission understand where we are coming from. The EU Commission’s definition of the ‘soft landing’ - a reduction in quota prices, and production falling below quota – is simply not occurring in Ireland and in a small number of other milk producing member states including Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. Instead, rising quota and superlevy costs are damaging the competitiveness of dairy farmers in Ireland and in those other countries – those with the greatest potential to generate additional export revenue for the EU economy post-2015,” he said.