Plan of 120 million euro
It took place on July 31 at the Rome meeting of the table milk with the Ministry Maurizio Martina, regions and major industry representatives from agricultural organizations for cooperation, by the dairy industry to retail chains. During the meeting, the Minister presented the new actions that the Government has in place for the milk sector with total investments exceeding 120 million euro in the three years up to 2017. These measures are in addition to the action already established by the recent approval of the Agriculture Law (91/2015), which provides among other things the implementation of the installment in 3 years without interest and the extension the scope for compensation between producers for the penalties of the last campaign. Here are the main actions:
– 65 million euro for supporting liquidity and the restructuring of the debt of farmers In the implementation phase of the Milk Fund 2015-2017 will be pursued to improve the competitiveness of the system and support access to credit by farmers, giving an initial response to their need for financial liquidity. In particular, it will focus a significant portion of the Fund, about 65 million Euros for interventions: – bank debt restructuring – reducing the cost of debt borne by businesses. On the first objective is faced eliminating the cost of the guarantee with the contribution from the Fund. For this intervention to the resources of the Milk Fund are added the 5 million already available at ISMEA for the same purpose. Farmers who opt for a reduction in the cost of debts can instead proceed to request an interest rate subsidy. The two forms of intervention are accumulated with each other, within the limits of the overall contribution to “de minimis”. Operation Example If a company has a debt due within one year 100,000 euro, through the Fund’s measures in coordination with the instruments Ismea can get a restructuring of 5 years of the debt, not paying the guarantee that costs 2000 and breaking down of EUR 13 000 euro interest. In this way, the company would have incurred a cost of 21,000 Euros, has a total cost of € 6,000, a savings of over 70%.
– 0.5 euro cents more per liter for milk producers through increased compensation tax
It is expected the rise in the compensation of VAT from 8.8% to 10% in favor of farmers in the dairy sector, resulting in a tax savings for companies in the sector estimated at around 0.5 euro cents per liter. This measure to be included in the next stability law, will be operational by January 2016 and will lead to greater facilitation for the sector for 30 million Euros per year.
National Technical Roundtable for indexing method in milk prices
It plans to set up in the Ministry a work group, coordinated by ISMEA, for the definition of a at the national level system of indexing the value of the milk to the barn shared by players in the sector, recovering and strengthening the work in Lombardia.
– Special plan to promote the consumption of fresh milk Mipaaf, in agreement with the Ministry of Health, will begin in September a special information campaign that aims to stimulate and increase the consumption of fresh milk, focusing on nutrition, health and product quality. The campaign is funded by the Ministry with a budget of 8 million Euros in the next three years. The campaign will start simultaneously with the use of the logo “100% Italian Latte” (private and voluntary) which will make it more easily recognizable to consumers the origin of the fresh milk through a homogeneous mark.
– Promotion of exports of Italian dairy products The great Italian DOP cheeses will be the protagonists of specific actions under the extraordinary plan for the Made in Italy, under the law of stability in 2015 and fielded by Mipaaf together with the Ministry of Economic Development. A substantial portion of the total budget of around 70 million Euros for the food industry is used to support campaigns on dairy products quality, in contrast to the Italian sounding optical and support for exports.
– Support for installations for biomethane systems on livestock farms
To stimulate the integration to the income of farmers Mipaaf aims to support investments in biogas plants for the exploitation of residual biomass and agricultural by-products. In the Ordinance on renewable energy, in fact, the tip of Mipaaf better fares for biogas plants of small dimensions with a priority for farms, comprised mostly of livestock farms. Actions to the dairy farming contained in the law 91/2015 are:
Implementation of the installment in 3 years without interest for the penalties of last campaign
The standard provides for the implementation to EU regulation for the payment of fines for the last milk campaign in 3 years and without interest. Payment is also accepted with a bank guarantee insurance, not just banking. Breeders interested can submit an application to AGEA by August 31, 2015
– Compensation shares last campaign For not increasing the burden on farmers, with standard expands the possibility of compensation between producers, as part of the national quota for the last campaign allowing those who overcame the quotas (with three more ranges percentages exceeded in production: 12 -30%, 30-50%, more than 50%) to compensate for up to 6%, which was not previously planned and take the penalty that saw the entire percentage of overshooting over 6%.
Sales contracts written and with a minimum duration of one year With the decision recognized the necessity of the written contract as required by art. 62 of Legislative Decree no. 1 of 2012, and are introduced important innovations such as the minimum duration of the contracts is 12 months; and the express indication of the price payable for the delivery which can be fixed or linked to certain factors, such as market indicators, the volume delivered and the quality or composition of the unpasteurised milk.
– Creation of Inter-organ of the milk to organize the sector To strengthen the industry defines the creation of a single inter-organ, which will make decisions on the rules of production, marketing, promotion, on contracts, on environmental protection and research valid “erga omnes”, to certain conditions, such as it happens in other European countries such as France.
– Strengthening of the contrast to the unfair practices of the market with antitrust It is strengthened the level of protection of farmers and milk producers, through a reform of article. 62 which provides for monitoring of the average production costs of unpasteurised milk by ISMEA, according to the methodology established by the Ministry of Agriculture. The data will be processed on a monthly basis and will provide a benchmark for the purpose of reporting the Antitrust. The penalties are up to 10% of the value of contracts in the event of violation of standard contracts extended erga omnes and fraud crackdown Inspectorate of Mipaaf (ICQRF) will report to the Antitrust any possible violations.
