Supply management has long proven to be a completely redundant policy measure. This was very much illustrated in our last dairy troughs in both 2009 and 2012 when despite Europe being completely within the quota system framework, prices still collapsed.

It is an antiquated system which is of absolutely no use in a globalised dairy trading world where we cannot control supply in other regions. In fact, Canada remains the only significant dairy bloc in the globe with a supply management system, and even that is creaking badly, with farmers exiting dairy in increasing numbers.

The reality is that this is a ‘demand’ driven crisis with Russia and China off the market for different reasons. With future population growth of the globe driving demand into the next generation for European Dairy enterprises, it would be criminally stupid if we misunderstood the problems and resorted to ineffective and costly local supply management measures to try and control world dairy prices.

Supply Management is often confused with market supports, such as Private Storage Aid and Intervention which are critical instruments in smoothing out the market, which we very much support and want strengthened.

By Conor Mulvihill