Milk quota in Romania

In 1984 it was decided by the EU member states (Council Regulation 856/84 EEC) to limit the milk production within the EU member state countries (the so-called milk quota scheme).

The main purpose of the scheme is to reduce the imbalance between supply and demand on the milk and milk products market and the resulting structural surpluses, thereby achieving a better market equilibrium.

This decision is also applicable to each new member state and therefore the Romanian Government issued Government Ordinance 48/2005 on the organisation of the cow milk market, approved with amendments and completions by the Law 72/2006.

As a candidate EU member state, Romania obtained a milk quota allocation from the European Commission. The quota has been allocated by the end of 2004 and is fixed at: 3,245,000 ton l (3.2 billion), of which :

      1,093,000 ton for deliveries to processors

      1,964,000 ton for direct sales

      188,000 ton national reserve

The reference year for the fat production is 2004. The reference period for the volume is 1 April 2005 - 31 March 2006.


The individual quota will be allocated in 2006. Farmers producing milk have to apply for a milk quota according to Order 1388/2005. This order concerns the establishment of the conditions for the approval of the cow purchasers and the application form for the approval and registration in the Purchasers register.

Under supervision of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture a Milk Quota office is established at ANARZ (The National Agency for improvement of Reproduction of Livestock). This Agency has 42 regional offices to supervise the milk quota system.

So support the development, establishment and management of the milk quota system, technical assistance is provided by the PHARE Twinning programme. This support will be provided by experts from The Netherlands, Austria and Poland.

On June 28th, 2006, Decision no. 852-2006 was made on the approval of the Methodology for the establishment of the individual milk quota allocation, as well as the allocation and re-establishment of the national milk reserve.

The Head office of the milk quota department is at the Ministry of Agriculture, Bucharest and can be reached at 021-2661211 and anarz@pcnet.ro



Evaluation on request for milk quota system by 1st April 2007

By April 1st, 2007 a milk quota system was in place and since than allocations have been made to those who applied for and are eligible for obtaining milk quota. However, due to many circumstances, allocation of quota is still under discussion and will be subject to changes.

In short, on basis of the application made, the following things were concluded at the beginning of the quota year:

Delivery quota
- National allocation 1,093,000 tons
- Of which reserve 21,860 tons
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- Available for allocation 1,071,140 tons

- Request for allocation 1,022,607 tons
- 2% is made available 1,002,155 tons

250,493 holdings (farms) applied for quota for direct delivery to milk processing facilities. These requests can be divided in the following quantities:

In terms of farm size the request for delivery quota the breakdown is:

- 68,985 tons is reserved for farm extensions and new investments

Direct Sales quota
- National allocation 1,964,000 tons
- Of which reserve 39,280 tons
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- Available for allocation 1,924,720 tons

- Request for allocation 2,186,431 tons

622,504 holdings (farms/individuals) applied for quota for direct sales. These requests can be divided in the following quantities;

Only four farms do have a quota more than 1 million kg!!

Allocation of quota for extensions and new holdings
- Available for extensions and new holdings 68,985 tons

- Number of applications 1,233
- Quantity of milk requested 181,588 tons
- Estimation of the allocation % 38%