The President of the Government said the working meeting with representatives of milk producers as well as of the dairy industry and marketing was very useful for insofar as it allowed us to restate the commitment that the current situation the sector is facing has to be overcome by all industry partners.
 
"This meeting follows other meetings that the Government the Azores has held with representatives of the sector. It was considered very useful, because it allowed us to restate the commitment that these demanding times will be overcome with joint efforts," said Vasco Cordeiro.
 
Speaking to journalists, the President of the Government said this working meeting proved to be important with regard to the definition of aspects that are essential so that the entire sector, in conjunction with public entities, implemented measures to "overcome the turbulence the dairy sector is facing with the least possible damage to all parties involved."
 
According to Vasco Cordeiro, several industry representatives have rejected the behaviour of the European Union in this matter. It tends to transfer the responsibility of the effects of the decisions taken at its decision-making centre in Brussels to countries and regions.
 
"This cannot happen. Making each country and region responsible for the response to the decisions taken in Brussels means that the intensity of this response will depend on the financial capacity of each country and region. It will privilege agriculture in countries that have greater financial capacity and harm agriculture in the countries that have less financial capacity," warned the President of the Government.
 
Vasco Cordeiro spoke at the end of the meeting, pointing out, however, that the clear identification of the situation shows that there is not an unreasonable increase in production, but rather the difficulty of providing an outlet for dairy products.
 
"If it is true that we cannot encourage production, this means we have to focus many of our responses on the provision of an outlet for these products," said the President of the Government. In this context, he added that these responses require changes in the payment criteria on Community support, including the Dairy Cow Premium and Dairy Products Premium since the allocation of such support must be line with the current situation.
 
There was a set of measures under consideration at this meeting, such as marketing campaigns and support to the export products, especially in more volatile markets.
 
"There is now much work to do. The next meeting was scheduled for mid-May in order to assess and improve these efforts," Vasco Cordeiro said, ensuring that these measures are already being implemented.
 
Given the current situation, the Regional Government has approved in late 2015 a package of measures to support the dairy sector, amounting to five million Euros, which corresponds to a financial allocation higher than the aid granted by the European Union to the entire country.
 
These measures add up to others the Government has already implemented, such as the case of AgroCrédito, a line of credit in the amount of 30 million Euros and the processing of more than 18 thousand applications to the measures under POSEI and PRORURAL+; the latter allowed the early payment of about 54 million Euros of aid and premiums to farmers by October 2015.
 
In addition to these and many other measures, the Council of the Government of the Azores approved in March the Dairy Sector Restructuring Programme, which provides a financial compensation to regional milk producers who are committed to definitively abandon milk production.
 
It is estimated that about 200 farmers throughout the Region are estimated to leave the activity with dignity. This measure also promotes the resizing and reparcelling of farms and the continuous rejuvenation of the agricultural sector.
 
The Government has also decided to create another support measure for Azorean agriculture, through a line of credit designated as SAFIAGRI III, to compensate the financial burden, namely interest fees and stamp duty taxes applied to investments in regional farms.
 
This support measure provides for the reimbursement of 30% of the financial burden of loans taken out for investments in farms.
 
SAFIAGRI III will cover a maximum loan volume of about 80 million Euros.