The Azores are going to have a specific programme to support the competiveness of dairy farms in order to prepare the sector for a possible dismantling of the milk quota system, from the 2014/2015 campaign onward.
The creation of this programme was announced by the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry, after a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries that took place in Lisbon.
During the meeting it was also established that the programme to support the milk and dairy sector will exclusively focus on production.
According to Noé Rodrigues, the animal husbandry sector will benefit from a considerable financial reinforcement that aims to provide Regional dairy farms with conditions to increase their competitiveness.
Nevertheless, Noé Rodrigues stated that “the Government of the Azores will continue to the defend the continuity of the milk quota system, given the fact that it protects the economic dimension of the Azorean dairy farms, and it introduces an important mechanism regarding the adjustment of milk production to dairy consumption.”
The Government had already demanded on several occasions that the funds for the reinforcement of competitiveness should be divided according to the whole National Production, so that the Azores could be awarded with the amount that corresponds to the Regional milk production in the National context - about 30%.