Dutch fined €132m by EU for milk overproduction

Dutch farmers produced 4 percent more milk than allowed last year and must now pay a 132 million euro fine to the European Union. Besides the Netherlands, seven other countries also exceeded the European milk quota. These countries were Germany, Poland, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Cyprus and Luxembourg. In total these countries have to pay a 409 million euro fine. The milk quota was introduced in the eighties to put an end to the large overproduction. The quota will end on March 1st, 2015. Therefore many farmers have already stepped up their production. The fine does not come as a surprise to the farmers. "Every farmer knows how much he may produce." says a spokesperson for farmers' organization LTO Nederland. "So it is up to the farmer himself to determine if he is over or not. And farmers do so because there is a lot of demand for milk world wide. The proceeds is currently higher than the fine they have to pay."