This year's milk quota restructuring scheme will cater, as a matter of priority, for those producers who had been dependent on temporary leasing over recent years and for those producers who were unable, for reasons outside their control, to renew existing land leases. I decided to structure this year's scheme in this way following consultation with organisations involved in the industry and taking account in particular of the views of the milk quota review group.
It was necessary, when deciding on the priorities for this year, to make particular provision for those producers who would be most directly affected by the change to the new regime and whose position, in the absence of priority access to quota, could be worse than last year. One of the aims is to try to give producers who had temporary leased quota in the past, regardless of their quota size, access to the same quantity of quota this year in so far as possible.
Of the total pool available for sale under the restructuring scheme, 85% will be allocated to producers who were dependent on temporary leasing over the past three years and to producers who were unable, for reasons outside their control, to renew existing land leases. The remaining 15%, plus any quota remaining unallocated after the entitlements of the special priority producers have been satisfied, will be allocated to all producers who applied for quota under the 2000 milk quota restructuring scheme. In cases where the demand in the priority category exceeds the quantity available and in the case of allocations from the 15% open to all producers, allocations will be weighted in favour of smaller scale producers.
The temporary leasing scheme will of course, continue to operate and I will announce details of that scheme at a later stage. The operation of the temporary leasing scheme, and in particular the setting of priority categories, will have regard to the outcome of the restructuring scheme.
