A European Commission spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal this Thursday that the experts mandated by the Commission and the member states rejected all offers received for the 21,963t of SMP currently available for sale from intervention stocks.

Bids totalling 7,490t came in at prices ranging between €1,550/t and €1,900/t, which was deemed too low. The minimum price set when tenders first opened last month was €2,151/t, and only 40t were sold then.

The latest round of offers shows no improvement in prices compared with the previous tender two weeks ago, when European experts rejected bids for 11,914t of SMP ranging from €1,651/t to €1,961/t. Despite the reduction in volumes sought and the stagnation in prices offered, the Commission and the members states are sticking to their position that no sales should be made at price levels that could destabilise the market.

EU quotations for SMP were still on a slow ascending path in the past week, at €2,110/t. On the New-Zealand based Global Dairy Trade (GDT) platform, the average SMP price fell by 1.6% at Tuesday’s auction to €2,465/t.

The next tender for intervention SMP is open for offers until 7 February.

Private storage aid

Volumes of SMP entering private storage aid fell below 2,000t across the EU last week. As more product comes to the end of its subsidised storage period, the quantities frozen under the scheme are now falling noticeably, with a net decrease of nearly 5,000t last month.

This was even more evident for butter, with just under 12,000t exiting private storage aid in December, leaving just 26,875t stored under the scheme at the start of this year.

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