Back in March at the council of EU agriculture ministers, referring to discussions surrounding certain member states’ desires to invoke Article 222 and incentivise their dairy farmers to reduce milk supply on a voluntary basis, then Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said Ireland’s position in relation to supply controls is very clear.

“We don’t think supply controls are the appropriate response. I don’t think Irish farmers want that,” he told media. “Certainly, Irish farm organisations don’t want that, I don’t think. What we want is proactive use-of-market intervention tools that are there, such as storage aid, intervention and more promotion.”

However, six months down the line, a total of 4,447 Irish farmers have applied to the €150m milk supply reduction scheme announced in the EU’s July package, the third-highest number of European farmers to apply after France and Germany.

Slight improvement

Milk prices, though dire, have not worsened during the last six months. If anything, they enjoyed a slight improvement in August, with most co-ops increasing the milk price paid to farmers.

So although the Irish Government did not invoke Article 222 in March and offer national funds to incentivise dairy farmers to reduce milk supply, clearly there was an appetite for such a scheme among Ireland’s farmers. It is surprising then that Coveney, who was generally rather adept at reading farmers during his two terms as agriculture minister, was so far off the mark on this issue.

Almost 4,500 Irish farmers apply for milk reduction scheme

Was Coveney’s finger off the pulse of Ireland’s dairy farmers?

The news that Ireland had the third-highest volume of applications for the €150m voluntary milk supply reduction scheme made the Dealer wonder how much has changed between March and September 2016.