Bulgarian milk producers to get EUR 5.8 M in EU support

European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has said that Bulgaria will receive EUR 5.8 M in EU assistance to support the country’s milk producers in 2016.

Hogan made the announcement at the regular meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels, the Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on 18 July.

The aid aims to support a voluntary reduction of EU milk deliveries. This scheme will operate at EU level so that farmers across the Union have access to it under the same conditions.

The reporting period will be the last quarter of 2016 compared to the previous 2015.

A further EUR 350 M will be distributed among EU member-states in a way similar to the distribution of the aid package in Autumn 2015, Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva explained, recalling that Bulgaria received EUR 6 M from the European Commission under last year’s aid package.

The sum of EUR 350 M is conditional adjustment aid, to be implemented by measures at member-state level. Member-states may top–up the aid by 100%.

The new assistance package of EUR 5.8 M for Bulgaria is almost five times higher than the share of Bulgaria in the EU’s overall raw milk production, Taneva added, according to the statement.

"Bulgaria, which produces 0.33% of EU’s milk, will receive 1.6% of the financial package,” Taneva said.

“Our ultimate goal is to see the much needed recovery of prices paid to farmers, so that they may make a living from their work and continue to provide safe, high quality food for citizens, as well as their contribution to rural areas and rural jobs and the provision of public goods," Phil Hogan said in a separate statement posted on the website of the European Commission on 18 July.

The new package of measures worth EUR 500 M from EU funds aims to support farmers in the face of ongoing market difficulties, particularly on the dairy market, and help restore the balance between milk production and consumption, and hence the price.