At the request of the Polish delegation, the European Council of Agriculture Ministers will take stock of the possibility of additional measures for supporting the milk market affected by the Russian ban on EU agricultural products at a meeting today.
It is believed Poland considers that the introduction of exports refunds could mitigate the price downfall observed on the milk market of the member states most concerned by the ban. Other measures could also be envisaged at the meeting.
On August 7, the Russian Federation introduced a one-year import ban on a number of agricultural products, raw materials and foodstuffs originating from the European Union as a countermeasure to sanctions imposed on Russia because of the situation in Ukraine. The list of banned products was slightly modified on 20 August. It includes meat, fish and crustaceans, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, sausages and food or finished products.
Emergency market support measures were decided on September 5. In order to mitigate the fall in dairy prices as a consequence of the Russian ban, those measures extend the possibility of public intervention (storage) for butter and skimmed milk powder scheduled to end on September 30, 2014. As cheese is one of the products most affected by the ban, a regulation granting the aid for private storage of cheese has been adopted.