Milk producer prices have slumped over the past year and so the rational behind the dairy project is to boost demand and therefore prices through promotional activities.
The EU Commission plans to build on previous marketing project with additional dairy product promotion programmes, and is calling on professional agricultural organisations to submit proposals to member states by 15 October.
These proposals will then be forwarded to the Commission before the end of October, before the Commission makes its selection by around 15 December. Programmes can run for 1, 2 or 3 years and involve promotional projects for milk and milk products within the EU.
Funding
Initially proposed earlier in the month in a report on the dairy market situation, the new round of programmes will receive €20m in EU funding, to then be doubled with national money.
“We are now launching an accelerated procedure to increase support to the promotion of dairy products, with a budget of €20m,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, commissioner for agriculture and rural development. “Promotion is one of the ways we aim to help our dairy producers out of the current crisis.”
Timeline
For these additional promotional projects professional agricultural organisations can submit their programmes to the Member States before 15 October.
These proposals will then be forwarded to the Commission before the end of October, before the Commission makes its selection by around 15 December.
Programmes can run for 1, 2 or 3 years and involve promotional projects for milk and milk products within the EU.
Recent projects
Last week the Commission approved a series of promotional projects for various food sectors including dairy. It allocated a total funding pot of €62.1m to 16 promotional food projects and contributed €28m to the projects itself.
With an EU contribution of €20m, the special round of promotional programmes announced today is therefore unusually high.
In the round of projects approved last week, dairy was one of the larger beneficiaries. CNIEL in France and NZO in the Netherlands were given the go-ahead for the promotional projects covering milk and dairy products with total funding of €8.84m.
The promotional activities, which typically include attendance at fairs and shows as well as information campaigns, highlight areas such as quality, hygiene, food safety, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare and eco-friendliness.