This article is from page 49 of the 2007-10-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 49 JPG
THERE was a mixed reaction to the third Milk Quota Trading Scheme announced by the Minister for Agri- culture, Mary Coughlan, last week.
Reacting to the new scheme, Macra na Feirme national president, Cath- erine Buckley, said she was disap- pointed with the imposition of a 3:2 ratio on the amount of quota a young farmer could receive from the prior- ity pool relative to category one sup- pliers.
Ms Buckley said this could reduce the levels of allocations to young farmers in some co-op pools.
“This could put a greater financial burden on progressive farmers who are trying to expand their business
by acquiring quota. On the exchange young farmers will find it difficult to compete for quota against larger and more established farmers who have ereater resources,’ she said.
“In certain co-op areas some young farmers did indeed receive high lev- els of quota compared to category one producers in the last two exchanges, however these allocations were the product of ring-fencing.”
The Chairman of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee, Dominic Cronin, wel- comed the changes to the exchanged describing them as ‘broadly positive’. Cronin said he was delighted to note that the minister appeared to have acted on some of the ICMSA’s rec- ommendations concerning the short- falls of the existing system.
“There were specific anomalies in the old system that we had identified and to which we suggested the rem- edies. Those suggestions appear to have been acted upon,” he said.
“We’re particularly happy that the category one suppliers will now have a better opportunity of receiving an allocation from the 30 per cent fixed pool with a specific allocation now allocated to them.
“We also believe that the changes announced will address the problems thrown up in the northern counties — problems which again we had high- lighted previously.”
The third scheme will again be run in respect of each co-op area, and will again be comprised of a priority pool and a market exchange. Howev-
er, the method of distribution of pri- ority pool quota will be refined and a mechanism aimed at increasing the amount of quota traded on market exchanges in particular co-op areas will be introduced.
“T have listened very carefully to the views of the farming organisa- tions and ICOS in the course of a Summer of consultation on the op- eration of the Milk Quota Trading Scheme,” said the minister.
‘The very clear message has been that the scheme has functioned ex- tremely effectively. However, some farmers have continued to experi- ence difficulties getting access to quota, and some co-op areas have experienced trading problems due to supply and demand factors.”