August 29, 2014
     
EU dairy to receive storage aid for Russia's ban

The European Commission will open Private Storage Aid (PSA) for certain dairy products to reduce the impact of Russian restrictions on imports, the Prague Post reports.

The dairy products include butter, skimmed milk powder (SMP) and certain cheeses, and the Commission has also confirmed that the period for public intervention of butter and SMP will be extended until the end of the year. A draft implementing act for butter and SMP will be presented to the committee next week for a formal vote.

Given the importance of certain cheeses in the value of EU exports to Russia (worth close to US$1.32 billion in 2013), the Commission also wants to extend this measure to cheeses.

Private Storage Aid is a measure predicted for butter and SMP under existing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) market rules whereby the Commission helps finance the cost of temporary storage of for at least 90 days and not more than 210 days. The CAP finances part of the cost of this temporary storage (comprising a fixed rate per ton, plus a set daily amount per ton). The products concerned remain the property of the operators, who are then responsible for selling it when it comes out of storage.

EU dairy exports to Russia last year were worth US$3.03 billion. 25 Member States exported cheese to Russia in 2013, but the main EU cheese exporters to Russia are the the Netherlands, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France and Latvia.