April 13, 2020

US addresses milk dumping to help producers amid COVID-19 pandemic

US milk producers dumping their milk because of recent market disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic will not be penalised.

The US Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA) said it is allowing dumped milk to be counted as milk marketings for the Dairy Revenue Production (DRP) or actual marketings for the Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy (LGM-Dairy) programmes.

In addition, RMA is extending inspection deadlines, waiving inspection requirements and authorising more crop insurance transactions over the phone and electronically to help producers during the crisis.

"Dairy Revenue Protection is a vital risk management tool for our dairy farmers, especially during times like these, and USDA wants to ensure producers continue to get the coverage they purchased", RMA Administrator Martin Barbre said, adding that RMA is making some further adjustments to assist the crop insurance industry and America's farmers and ranchers.

"We will continue to make adjustments as needed to ensure that the federal crop insurance programme continues to serve the risk management needs of our nation's producers during this unprecedented time", he said.

COVID-19 shutdowns have caused disruption in the milk market, and dairy producers are dumping milk as a result. For the 2020 calendar year, RMA is allowing Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) to count dumped milk toward the milk marketings for the DRP or actual marketings for the LGM-Dairy programmes regardless of whether the milk was sold.

Producers will still have to provide the AIPs supporting documentation from the cooperative or milk handler verifying the actual pounds dumped and that the milk was dumped.

For the most current updates on available services, you may visit farmers.gov/coronavirus.