Junior Agriculture Minister Tony Killeen T.D., has said that despite the country’s overall milk quota position and the difficult year experienced by dairy farmers, demand for milk quota has held up very strongly.
The Clare Fianna Fail Deputy made his comment following the confirmation of the aggregate results of the seventh Milk Quota Trading Scheme, which is the first of two that will allocate quota in respect of the 2010/2011 quota year.
Minister of State Killeen said that demand has risen significantly compared to the most recent exchange last March. He continued: “In spite of this rise in demand, there has been a further fall in the volume of quota traded which probably again reflects a degree of mismatch between the expectations of buyers and sellers. The continuing price reductions, however, are very welcome.”
A total of just over 38 million litres of milk quota was offered for sale, with 18 million litres successfully traded. Of this total, 12 million litres was sold on the exchange at prices ranging from 5 to 17 cent per litre, with more than ninety per cent of this amount traded at or below 12 cent per litre. The remaining 6 million litres was sold through the priority pool at the maximum price of 6 cent per litre, with the exception of Kerry, Lakelands and Connacht Gold, where the priority pool price followed the market clearing price to 5 cent per litre.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editor:
– High-resolution images of Tony Killeen, Fianna Fail TD for Clare, and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with special responsibility for Forestry, Fisheries and the Marine, may be downloaded from www.dunphyprimages.com
– For further information please contact Mark Dunphy of Dunphy PR at [email protected] or 086-8534900
