In its most recent tender, the Commission put forward over 11,000t of stock however, no bidders were willing to pay the Commission’s minimum price.
It comes following a similarly poor tender late last year for the stock with less than 40t out of a possible 20,000t sold at the Commissions minimum price of €2,150/t.
Last month, the European Commission announced its proposal to go ahead with a sale of Skimmed Milk Powder out of intervention following agreement from Member States.
The Commission said the proposal was on the back of encouraging signs of recovery being seen on the European milk market, with an increase of about 10pc of the average price paid to producers in the last three months.
It said In order to test the market reaction, the quantity of product concerned by the tender procedure is limited, corresponding to only 6pc of the total amount of 355,000t of SMP stored and taken off the markets since the opening of the measure in September 2014.
Following a steady slow down, no more quantities of SMP have been put into public intervention since September 2016, even though this market measure remains open.
The Commission has said that opening the tender procedure does not mean selling products.
It says the offers received will be examined and accepted only if they do not risk disrupting the market recovery. The process will be under constant reassessment, it stresses.
Source: Independent
Link: http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/dairy/eu-milk-powder-mountain-remains-as-tender-bids-fall-short-35346346.html