France was the only country to offer dairy product into intervention for the week ending October 25, the latest figures from the Milk Market Observatory (MMO) show.

France offered 119t of skimmed milk powder (SMP) to the measure.

This is the lowest offering to intervention since countries started offering dairy product to the measure in July.

Nine countries have offered SMP to intervention since July, including Ireland which has offered 1,967t to the measure.

The amounts offered have been decreasing since the first week of October, with 417t offered to the measure for the week ending October 18, 2015.

Ireland hasn’t used intervention since the week ending October 4, when 72t of SMP was offered.

Private Storage Aid

The amount of SMP offered into Private Storage Aid (PSA) has also started to slow; with 495t offered to PSA for the week ending October 25, 2015.

To date, a total of 52,557t of SMP has been offered to the measure.

Ireland hasn’t offered SMP to PSA since the week ending October 13, when Ireland offered 634t to the measure.

A total of 7,258t has been offered to PSA from Ireland so far.

Looking at the amount of butter offered to PSA, Ireland hasn’t offered butter to the measure since the week ending October 4, when 565t was offered.

A total of 154,355t of butter has been offered to PSA by the 10 countries using the measure in 2015.

The recent Dairy Aid Package from Europe to help beleaguered dairy farmers was not the correct response, according to IFA Dairy Chairman Sean O’Leary.

Instead, dairy farmers need instruments to help deal with extreme volatility, he said, and it was a ‘missed opportunity’ to not review the intervention price.