Checking in with the dairy industry: things looking up
Trade and Entrepreneurship Minister Anne Sulling said the first contracts to sell dairy products to Japan have been signed, while the Estonian milk producers have been paid out 6.9 million euros from EU funds as an emergency measure following Russian food import bans.
Sulling said AS Tere will sell whey powder and AS E-Piim cheese to Maruben Corporation. The volume of the first sale is unknown, but Sulling said further deals and extensions are planned.
“The aim is to send 5,000 tons of cheese, which is 25 percent of the production [of Estonia] and 5,000 tons of whey powder to Japan each year,” she said, adding that Estonia wants to sell all capacity previously going to Russia, now to Japan.
Maruben Corporation is not unknown to Estonia, having traded CO2 quotas with Estonia.
In other dairy-related news, 720 milk farmers in Estonia have received a total of 6.9 million euros in additional subsidies. That figure is part of 28 million euros handed to Baltic farmers to compensate for the Russian food import ban, which hit dairy farmers especially hard.
Editor: J.M. Laats