Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed has written to the European Commission to seek market supports, including the opening of its Private Storage Aid (PSA) option for Irish dairy products, in the event of market disturbance caused by Covid-19.

The request will support a submission made earlier this week by the Irish dairy industry for

In a statement to AgriLand, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said:

“The minister has written to Commissioner Wojciechowski, following the announcement from President von der Leyen of a very significant economic package to respond to the crisis, seeking to ensure that the full range of market supports available under the Common Market Organisation Regulation are available for deployment in response to any emerging market disturbance.

Market support measures under the Common Market Organisation Regulation includes Private Storage Aid.

Moves are already underway with the EU to open such tools, following on from the application, submitted by Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) earlier this week on Wednesday, March 18.

Practical solutions

Speaking to AgriLand on Wednesday, DII director Conor Mulvihill outlined the need for the Irish dairy sector to be proactive in its approach and to establish “what practical solutions can be brought to bear as this develops”.

“Private storage aid is a tool under the Common Market Organisation regulation CMO that allows companies to store specific dairy products for a period of time, subsidised by the European Commission.”

DII is submitting the request for two reasons: to help the dairy sector deal with the impact of the coronavirus around Europe; and also to assist as peak milk production time approaches over the coming months.

“It’s very logical and in everyone’s interest that an option for private storage aid is available for Irish dairy companies,” Mulvihill added.