Global Trade Alert

 On 4 September 2014, the European Commission announced regulations 947/2014, 948/2014 and 949/2014 extending the annual intervention period for butter and skimmed milk powder from March-September to March-December.
The regulations also introduced private storage aid schemes for butter and skimmed milk powder. The aid shall be distributed in the following amounts for butter:

• 18.93EUR per tonne of storage for fixed storage costs
• 0.28EUR per tonne per day of contractual storage.

The following amounts will be made available for skimmed milk powder:

• 8.86EUR per tonne of storage for fixed storage costs
• 0.16EUR per tonne per day of contractual storage.

With the new provisions, only the intervention period for 2014 was extended until the end of the year. The Commission argued the extention was necessary due to the Russian import ban of dairy products from the EU.
The regulations came into force on 6 September 2014.
Update on 16 December 2014:
On 16 December 2014, the Commission decided by regulation 1336/2014 to extend the private storage aid scheme and the intervention period also for January and February of the year 2015.
Update on 26 February 2015:
On 26 February 2015, the Commission decided by regulation 303/2015 to extend the private storage aid schemes and the intervention period until the end of September 2015.
Update on 18 September 2015:
On 18 September 2015, the Commissione extended the schemes until the end of February 2015.
Update on 28 January 2016:
The Commission extended the schemes and the intervention period until 30 September 2016.
Update on 14 March 2016:
The EC almost doubled the intervention ceilings for butter and skimmed milk as part of a revised support package for European farmers (cf. Related Measures).
Update on 2 April 2016:
The EC published regulation 2016/482 officially ending the scheme on 30 September 2016.
Update on 18 July 2016:
The EC announced in a press release a support package which included the extension of the scheme above until end of February 2017. (cf. Related Measures) The underlying regulations 1614/2016 and 1619/2016 were issued on 9 September 2016.