EU grants financial support to Finnish milk sector

Finnish dairy farmers to receive nearly €11 million in EU support following the Russian ban on agricultural products.

Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for agriculture and rural development, announced today (11 December) that Finnish milk producers will be granted financial aid to cope with the consequences of the Russian embargo on dairy products.

The decision follows protests from Finland after the country was excluded from earlier subsidies in November, when the European Commission had decided to support Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian producers to the tune of €27 million. Finland was not included because the price of dairy product had not fallen as steeply there as in the other three countries.

Click Here: cheap INTERNATIONAL jersey

Petteri Orpo, Finland’s minister for agriculture and forestry, protested, saying that he had received informal confirmation from Hogan that Finland would be included in the support package. The country also teamed up with the Baltic states to receive financial aid.

Finnish milk producers can now expect to receive almost €11m in EU support. Orpo, welcomed the decision, saying it was “an important addition to the €22.5m already granted from our national funds”. He added that the case was an “important matter of principle for Finland”.

“Obviously the support granted to us will not cover all of our losses, but it is still an important gesture from the EU towards the Finnish producers”, the minister said.

The price of milk in Finland fell by 11% from September 2013 to September 2014 because there was more milk available on the domestic market as a result of the ban, while the demand from Finnish consumers remained the same. Prices in Estonia decreased by 27%, in Latvia by 26% and Lithuania by 33%.

The Finnish lobby was complicated by the dominance of Finland’s biggest dairy company Valio, that influences the market, Hogan said. He explained that a further look into the figures was needed because of the country’s co-operative sector. “We worked very hard with the authorities over the last couple of weeks and we are glad that we are able to achieve this”, he added.

The Coalition of Baltic farmers, together with their Finnish counterparts, worked on EU support in recent months. It welcomes the “gesture of solidarity”, though a spokesperson said that the aid “covers less than one third of losses since August”.

According to the Commission, farmers will receive the support by the summer of 2015.