The maximum milk quota price has been set at 12 cent per litre Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan announced today.
Speaking at the ploughing championship in Carlow Minister Coughlan also announced a new milk quota trading system to supersede the milk quota restructuring scheme.
Under the new system a priority pool and a market pool, the latter to run as an exchange, will be set up. The Department of Agriculture will publish the detailed rules for the operation of the system shortly.
"The new Milk Quota Trading System will create a more open market system of transferring quota and will allow farmers much greater freedom to make choices about how milk quota should be transferred, affording them far greater scope to decide the volume and price of quota they wish to buy," Minister Coughlan said.
However, the President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) Jackie Cahill said the introduction of the exchange was "an unwelcome experiment" by the minister.
Mr Cahill also said that dairy farmers should "not pay more than 10c a litre" for milk quota under the new quota exchange.