EU ministers agree 2% quota increase
Published 18 March 2008

EU ministers have agreed a flat increase of 2% on EU-27 milk quotas from 1 April 2008. The agreement to increase quotas came after a vote yesterday (17/03/08). Of the 27 members voting, 24 voted for the increase with Germany and Austria rejecting the proposal and France abstaining. The increase will be applied on a flat basis and will be in addition to the final 0.5% increase for several member states under the Agenda 2000 agreement. Therefore from 1 April 2008, EU-27 quota will stand at 142 billion litres - 3.9 billion litres higher than the previous year.

The proposal was in response to many of the member states calling for a quota increase, to enable them to take advantage of more favourable market conditions.