EU milk production increased steadily in the 1970s and 1980s due to the price support policy within the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for Milk and Milk Products. By the late 1970s milk production outstripped overall milk consumption and lead to rapidly rising expenditures for the stocking of butter and SMP. In order to limit public expenditure on the sector, to control milk production, and to stabilise milk prices and the agricultural income of milk producers, EU MS agreed to impose milk quotas by the milk marketing year 1984/85. The quota was made effective by the imposition of a.
