EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has welcomed the opening today of a new Private Storage Aid (PSA) scheme for the pigmeat sector, commenting that he hopes the measure will help to stabilise the EU market.
“I am aware that the pigmeat sector is facing difficulties and that prices have been in decline since September, and so I hope this measure will help the market,” said commissioner Hogan, speaking in Brussels this morning.
Aimed at easing pressure on the EU market, the new PSA provides EU funding to help cover the costs of storing certain pigmeat products for periods of three to five months. Announced by Mr Hogan (pictured above) in September last year, as part of the €500 million support package for farmers, the measure includes lard, which was not covered by the PSA scheme which ran for a while in 2015.
Member states will report twice a week on the quantities submitted into storage, with regular updates on the EU pigmeat market now being made available online under the European Commission’s information dashboard network.