Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The first milk quota trading scheme ran successfully in January and resulted in 120 million litres of quota being offered for sale, with 73 million litres traded. The second stage of the scheme has a closing date of 9 March and the exchange will be run in April.

The trading scheme which has replaced the restructuring scheme from the 2007 to 2008 quota year allows milk producers the opportunity to bid for the volume of quota required to meet the development needs of their farm enterprise at a price that will generate a commercial rate of return.

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