This paper examines EU dairy sector and market developments, and the likely impact of the milk quota removal. The latter is illustrated by model simulations focused on the Dutch dairy farm sector. Declining milk prices raise the question whether quota are still relevant to the sector. Ongoing trade liberalisation will further push down EU milk prices, with significant income effects. The Dutch case study shows that early quota abolition will be beneficial for larger farms eager to expand and enhances structural change. Implications for the European dairy processing sector are discussed too. The paper concludes by presenting sets of policy instruments that may facilitate the sector gradual adjustment to a situation without milk quota.

Rather than simply cataloging the various interpretations of European regulations by Member States, this international team examines the economic priorities, the legal bases, the social norms and cultural patterns which come into play, presenting an analytical approach to the study of production rights in European agriculture.This work traces the emergence and the economic and legal content of the different income support tools for agricultural producers, collectively termed 'production rights' and it looks at the foundations of the specific national conceptions underlying the methods of organising agricultural activity.The book is intended for a varied readership: farmers themselves, of course, but also economic, legal and tax consultants, experts, lawyers, notaries, as well as students, teachers and researchers. It has been set out in such a way as to allow readers to move freely from one subject to another, depending on whether their interest lies in economic aspects or legal developments, or whether they are more concerned by certain production rights or by certain features of their own organisation. The goal of the book is to enable the reader to grasp the special features and the significance of the forces which have shaped the current income support instruments for producers in the various Member States of the EU, and which will unquestionably continue to influence the measures which flow from reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy in the years to come.

This report is an attempt to improve understanding of the dairy sector through an analysis of the trade and economic effects of the main policy measures (subsidies) applied to the dairy sector.