20 October 2009 - European Union agriculture ministers yesterday approved the Commission's proposal to extend the period for buying butter and skimmed milk powder into public intervention storage.
This forms the latest part of the Commission's ongoing efforts to stabilise milk prices for dairy farmers.
Normally, intervention buying is limited to 30,000 tonnes of butter and 109,000 tonnes of SMP and is only open between 1 March and 31 August each year. The Commission has already bought butter and SMP well beyond these limits (so far, 83,000 tonnes of butter and 283,000 tonnes of SMP).
Now the Council agreed to extend the period for intervention until the end of February 2010 when the new intervention period begins. Purchases beyond the normal limits are carried out through a tendering procedure.