Ireland offered a further 853t of skimmed milk powder (SMP) to EU public intervention this week.

Earlier in September Ireland offered 261t of SMP to intervention, for the first time since 2009 and became the eighth country to put product into the scheme.

This brings Irelands total of SMP in intervention to 1,114t.

It followed  Belgium, Denmark, Latvia, Lituania, Finland, UK and Poland. According to figured from the Milk Market Observatory (MMO) there has been over 17,500t of SMP offered to date.

Ireland also put SMP into private storage last week; the first time since August 23. Some 634t of SMP were put into private storage last week, bringing the total 7,258t.

Ireland continues to put butter into private storage and as of September some 25,142t of butter was in private storage.

Current intervention pricing

The current intervention prices include €221.75/100kg for butter and €169.8/100kg for SMP these prices equate to 21c/L in terms of Irish milk prices.

Under the intervention scheme, operators in the dairy sector can sell butter and SMP to public authorities at the above mentioned fixed prices up to a limit of 50,000t for butter and 109,000t for SMP from March to September each year.

Incase those ceilings are met, purchases continue through a tender system.

Member State authorities notify to the Commission on a weekly basis the quantities for which they have received offers for sale.