NEW DELHI, March 9 -- It was lauded in Brussels with the Agriculture Commissioner saying that the three-year process had shown public intervention to be a proven and effective tool and demonstrated the EU's commitment to support European farmers.
However, we should pause, take a breath and see if it was quite so effective.
"Public Intervention" is "a safety net", namely the buying-in of SMP and butter into public storage, where it is offered by private operators and bought in at a fixed price by the European Commission. The product is then sold back via a tender process to licenced buyers.
This round of Intervention focused on only SMP (no butter) and was actioned in response to the 2015/2016 milk price crisis and it was the only tool av...