In NZ we appear to be coming out of the dairy slump, but Europe is still well and truly down in the "dairy dumps", as seen by Belgium and Scottish farmers dumping their milk in protest. Governments are having to help out right across Europe. The EU has announced extra aid for dairy farmers after protests in several countries over a slump in milk prices reports The BBC news. The European Commission says it will change EU state aid rules to let member states pay each farmer up to 15,000 euros (£13,000) in temporary aid. The Commission says it expects to spend an extra 600m euros this year on market measures to support dairy farmers. In Belgium on Wednesday angry farmers dumped three million litres (660,000 gallons) of milk on fields. French and German farmers have also dumped milk and blocked deliveries in frustration at the low prices for dairy produce. Farmers say they want the EU to freeze planned increases in production quotas, because boosting the supply on the market lowers prices further. The EU plans to phase out milk quotas by 2015 and to limit market intervention, with a view to scrapping it in the long term. The Commission plans to extend EU special purchases of butter and skimmed milk powder to at least February next year, to help farmers. The European Parliament has backed the plan, but wants it to include cheese too. These EU market interventions help support dairy prices.
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