Milk quota, dairy market, fat content of milk, dairy holdings
Analysis of the dairy market with emphasis on milk quota regulation
Monika Wohlfarth
The situation on the dairy market is influenced by political framework like the milk quota system and the milk market regulations which have different market support instruments. The market support was reduced by the decisions to the Agenda 2000 seriously. The reform steps were turned over largely in the middle of 2006. The surplus of milk which was available in the European Union at the introduction of the milk quota system has reduced significantly in the over twenty-year history of the quota system. The market approaches more and more a balance situation by the steady increase in the cheese consumption in the European Union. The market prices by far have not followed the reduced support level on a full scale. Milk protein seems already to pass a market balance while a certain structural surplus is still available at butter. For the reduction of this surplus the lowering of the milk fat contents about breeding-measures could make a contribution.