Conditions for receiving adjustment support for dairy farmers

The Ministry of Agriculture informs that in early May the government supported the amendments prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture to the regulations on the procedure for granting the European Union's emergency adjustment support to milk producers. The changes supplement the EU's emergency adjustment support with 7 million euros of funding from the state budget to mitigate the reduction in income for producers caused by the import embargo introduced in August 2014.

National emergency adjustment support under EU conditions will be granted according to the same criteria as the EU emergency adjustment support in December 2016. It will be paid per tonne of milk delivered to the first buyer in an amount of at least 500 kg between March and August 2016, if the producer has been involved in one of the eligible activities:

• failure to increase or decrease production (the amount of milk supplied does not exceed the previous year's figure within a certain period);
• small-scale farming (no more than 50 dairy cows),
• involvement in a cooperation project (milk supply to a cooperative society);
• implementation of quality schemes (national food quality scheme or reduced somatic cell count and total bacterial count);
• use of environmentally and climate-friendly methods (organic farming, biogas production).

To receive additional state emergency adjustment support, the producer had to have registered dairy cows as of February 1, 2017.

As with the EU's emergency adjustment support, the additional national support rate per tonne will be higher (by 10 percent) for those producers who supplied milk to a cooperative society (including one registered in another EU Member State) that processes milk and produces dairy products or that owns more than 50 percent of the share capital in a society that produces dairy products.

The provisional support rate will be 16 euros per tonne, but for producers, who will be entitled to a 10 percent higher support rate, it will be approximately 17 euros per tonne.

As before, the milk producer does not need to submit an application for support, as the support to be paid to each producer will be calculated by the Rural Support Service and transferred to the relevant producer's account specified in the unified agricultural sector information system. It is planned that the support will be paid by September 30, 2017.

More information on amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers (Cabinet of Ministers) Regulation No. 688 of 25 October 2016 “Procedures for granting European Union emergency adjustment support to milk producers” is available at the Cabinet of Ministers. on the website and the official publication "Latvijas Vēstnesis" on the website.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture also draws the attention of dairy farmers that in 2017, transitional state support for breeding work for the creation and maintenance of a herd book for dairy cows of dairy breeds is not planned for owners of dairy cow herds.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture