Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-10-Speech-2-482"
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"en.20090310.35.2-482"2
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"− The two questions by Mrs Harkin and Mr Ó Neachtain mainly concern the same subject. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to answer them together.
Of course, the sector itself also has a responsibility to adapt production to demand, in order to try to restore profitability, and Mrs Harkin wants to know if the Commission has similar plans for other sectors.
I gather that the question might be aimed at refunds for the pig meat sector. But I must say that at present, I do not see any justification for introducing export refunds in the pig meat sector because we see that the number of pregnant sows and the number of piglets are decreasing. Consequently, the input on the European market will decrease, and therefore we hope that the result will be increasing prices.
We also have to take into account that for pork production, the situation is totally different to the end of 2007 because today, the feed input prices, and the energy prices, are considerably lower than when we introduced the export refunds for the pig meat sector.
So please trust me that we will continue to keep an eye on the situation. I do not underestimate the difficulties in the dairy sector. I think it is decades since we experienced a situation like the one we are seeing today.
I am happy to say that the Commission has recently taken a number of measures within the dairy sector in an attempt to try to end the downward spiral of prices.
We have already introduced private storage earlier than we normally do. We have also started the intervention system whereby we hope to be able to stabilise the prices for butter and for skimmed milk powder, as this intervention system will certainly remove a lot of quantities from the market.
Originally, we entered a level of 30 000 t of butter and 109 000 t of powder, but I have indicated recently that we will be able or willing to go higher than these figures by opening a tender.
Export refunds for the dairy sector were further alleviated recently. We can see that we are faced with a significant drop in the world market prices although Europe has not increased its production, despite the 2% increase in the milk quota which was agreed for last April.
So I think I can say to those people who argue that the drop in prices is due to the increase in the quota that this is not the case, because we can see that in spite of the 2% increase in the quota, production is staying at a lower level than we used to see before.
With the introduction of the export refunds, however, we should see a situation where we can increase the chances for the European Union’s dairy producers to be present in the world market. At the same time, this may also alleviate the imbalance within the dairy market.
In response to the specific question that Mr Ó Neachtain put forward, the Irish dairy sector with a relatively high share of milk processed into butter and into skimmed milk powder, and a relatively high share of export outside the European Union, will, in particular, benefit from the measures taken by the Commission.
I can promise you that we are closely following the situation in the dairy market. This can be seen from the fact that two weeks ago, we actually increased the export refunds in the dairy sector, and we will be willing to take all the necessary steps."@en1
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