Ireland is set to pay the fourth highest superlevy bill in Europe, according to latest ICOS projections.
Since the end of the quota year ICOS have been involved in a project to estimate the projected superlevy bill Irish and fellow European dairy farmers will have to pay.
It says the total bill has been revised upwards to €868m.
The following is a table outlining the most current projections for the 13 countries facing a bill, with Ireland fourth on €69m.
ICOS says the bills are particularly unwelcome at a time of market difficulty in the dairy sector across Europe.
- Germany: €300m
- Poland: €180m
- Netherlands: €150m
- Ireland: €69m
- Austria: €40m
- Belgium: €30m
- Italy: €30m
- Spain: €25m
- Denmark: €24m
- Latvia: €10m
- Luxembourg: €5m
- Estonia: €3m
- Cyprus: €2m
These figures are well up on the €409m stumped up by dairy producers from across eight countries including Ireland last year. This was also at a time when overall European quota being underutilised by the tune of 4.6%.
The current scheme to spread the final fine over three years by Commissioner Hogan is most welcome, according to ICOS, but it says the reality is that these monies are still been taken away from the dairy industry in full in a time of market difficulty.
ICOS says that these monies should not disappear unto the general EU budget be retained within a dairy industry under great pressure.