Publicly-funded stores of European Union beef could reach about one million tonnes by the end of 2001 because of the mad cow crisis, EU officials said today.
Public intervention is used in the European Union, at high cost, to remove surpluses from the internal market and keep prices steady by buying in unwanted products for storage. The produce is later disposed of or sold on the world market.
"You could, according to estimates, foresee EU beef intervention stocks reaching one million tonnes by the end of 2001 if markets do not recover and if exports do not resume", Mr Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler, said.
Beef consumption in the EU has dropped by an average of 28 per cent since fears over mad cow disease began sweeping mainland Europe last October.
Many non-EU countries have banned imports of beef from the EU since the start of the food scare, threatening to create a huge market surplus with no foreseeable outlet.
Tough new controls ordered by the European Commission to combat the spread of the disease within the 15 member states may offset the amount of meat in intervention however, Mr Kreuzhuber said.
Mr Fischler extended until end-2001 a so-called purchase for destruction scheme under which surplus older cattle are destroyed and kept off the market.
Under the new special purchase scheme brought in last month, member states will be compensated whether they decide to destroy or store the beef under the programme.