Comissioner Phil Hogan outlined the new package on Twitter this morning:

The ICMSA has welcomed the allocation of €13.73m of direct aid to dairy farmers, but has said that it is only miniscule compared to the losses suffered by dairy farmers since the start of 2015.

“ICMSA estimates that the direct losses suffered by Irish dairy farmers to date in 2015 amount to €380m,” said ICMSA president John Comer. “We calculate the funding available from the EU is only 3.6% of the total losses to the end of August and clearly is not adequate.”

IFA president Eddie Downey has said that at €13.73m, Ireland’s share of the €420m targeted aid from the EU’s €500m support package announced last week is totally inadequate to deal with the income difficulties on farms at this time.

Eddie Downey said that farmers would expect Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to mirror the decisions of other countries on top-ups from national funds, which the EU Commission package explicitly allows, to ensure Irish farmers are not at a competitive disadvantage.

“To affect real and lasting change, the Minister and the EU Commission must now move to ban below-cost selling at retailer level and take decisive action to break the global input supplier cartels that are becoming ever more apparent,” Downey said.

The sentiment was reflected by the EU-wide organisation Copa and Cogeca who say it is still not sufficient to solve the bad situation hitting EU agricultural markets, mainly as result of the Russian export ban and unfair actions by retailers.

“I welcome, as a positive step forward, some new additional elements in the package, but it still falls short of our expectations,” said Copa president Albert Jan Maat. “In particular, I welcome the fact that farmers cashflow problems will be helped by advancing their direct payments in autumn. This must be done immediately.”

They welcomed the boosting of EU promotion programmes and emphasised the importance of having a strong export strategy and export insurance in the EU beef, pork and milk markets.

Copa Cogeca outlined the fact that the package includes very few measures to help manage the market or deal with the increasing volatility and short-term problems. They also noted the lack of measures for the EU beef and pigmeat sectors.