In the ten weeks since the European Commission re-opened Private Storage Aid, 19,677 tonnes of butter have been offered into the scheme, with the majority coming from Ireland and the Netherlands.

DairyCo report that the Commission re-opened PSA in September in response to the threat of market disruption due to the loss of the Russian export market. PSA is a payment made by the Commission to processors in return for keeping products in storage and off the market for an agreed period of time.

A total of 13,559 tonnes of SMP have been offered into PSA since September, with the majority of offers coming from Denmark.

PSA was extended for cheese when it opened, but was repealed later in the month due to a disproportionate surge in offers from cheese producing countries not traditionally exporting significant quantities of cheese to Russia. In the 18 days that the scheme was open, 100,804 tonnes of cheese were offered, with the majority of offers coming from Italy.

PSA for butter and SMP is due to remain open until 31 December 2014.