Dairy quotas management in France. First results and future prospects - Dairy quotas were introduced into the EEC on April 2nd 1984 for a transitory period of 5 years. France choose to apply the quotas to dairy plants. The first two crop years benefitted from the results of a campaign to induce a limitation of production which was very successful in France and which allowed a redistribution of some 1.6 million tons of reference quantities. Producers in a period of growth could thus benefit from an additional reference quantity with a fixed guaranteed minimum for the first crop year. As the national reserve was relatively small, it was impossible to use it as an adjustment device but mountain areas and newly established young farmers were nevertheless granted priority. During the first period, the reorganization between producers and dairy plants did not lead to an important transfer of reference quantities from one area to the other, but it is probable that the redistribution of unused quotas will. The absence of a quota market is probably due to the undefined legal status and ownership of the quotas. The system of applying quotas to the dairy plants leaves a greater liberty of management which is beneficial to the producers but it gives lesser margin for the participation of the farmers in the local management and distribution of reference quantities as well as for the development of a regional decision center.
