Teagasc Hosts International Gathering of Agricultural Economists

A major international workshop to discuss the impact of potential changes to the EU milk quota regime has taken place in Dublin. The expectation of a “Health Check” of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2008 has prompted a debate on the future of the dairy quota system in the European Union.

At the workshop, hosted by Teagasc, experts from many European countries gathered to discuss the challenges involved in measuring the impact of future changes to the EU milk quota regime.

This event follows last autumn’s consultation meeting with Irish dairy industry stakeholders, at which EU Commission representatives hinted strongly that milk quotas were unlikely to continue beyond 2015. In light of this, dairy industry stakeholders called on Teagasc to be proactive in its research on the potential impact of milk quota abolition on farming in Ireland.

Thia Hennessy, Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre, said: “This workshop was another step in furthering our capacity to address the important question of how milk quota reform is likely to affect farmers in Ireland”.

Teagasc’s experienced policy analysis team, the FAPRI-Ireland Partnership, will complete an analysis of dairy policy reform later this year. In advance of this, experts from around the world have been invited to troubleshoot some of the difficulties associated with predicting the likely impact of such an unprecedented policy reform. Teagasc economist, Trevor Donnellan, explained that this latest FAPRI study would be available for all dairy interest groups in Ireland to help inform the debate on the future of milk quotas.

He said: “The debate on quotas will intensify across the EU this summer and Ireland will be well placed to contribute to the process”.

The milk quota regime has been in place since 1984 and since that time strict limits have existed in terms of the amount of milk that could be produced in Ireland and the rest of the EU. Proponents of this system have argued that quotas have been effective in stabilising farmers’ incomes, while critics claim it has only served to stifle the international competitiveness of the sector.