Market organization
- Intervention purchases, storage and sale of agricultural and food products
- Preparation for administration of import and export licenses, support to private storage and processing, and implementation of campaigns to boost domestic consumption.
Market Information System
- Regular collection, analysis and publication of up-to-date reports on the prices and sales of agricultural and food products on the domestic and foreign markets.
- Collection and analysis of information related to price support (intervention) transactions and other market regulation measures.
- Building an integrated EU-compliant national Agricultural and Food Products Market Information System (MIS) in conjunction with the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture and the Chamber of Agriculture.
- In co-operation with other institutions, implementing standards for the provision of statistical information to the European Union, which will serve as the basis of future regular reports to the EU.
Price support: intervention purchases, storage and sales
Intervention purchases, storage and sales of agricultural products are carried out in view of with EU regulations, the Agency’s experience and the current situation on the agricultural market. The Lithuanian Government and the Ministry of Agriculture, which acts on behalf of the Government, sets intervention purchase prices, quantities and transaction times.
Implementing the approved Agricultural and Food Market Regulation and Export Promotion Programme, the Agency carried out intervention purchases of food grains, meat and dairy products in 1998-99. The largest volumes of products were bought in 1998 and 1999 – 486,700 and 367,600 tones of grains, respectively. In the year 2000, purchase volumes dropped to 156,700 tones. Meanwhile, up to 122,00 tones of grains is expected to be bought up from the 2001 harvest, with 30 April 2002 set as the closing date. The Agency purchases only food grains – wheat, rye and buckwheat – since 2000. Products must comply with the existing Lithuanian quality standards. The Agency draws on commercial bank loans to pay agricultural producers. Repayment of the loans is guaranteed by the LLC Agricultural Loans Guarantee Fund on the basis of a borrowing ceiling fixed by the Government.
The purchased grains are stored in intervention warehouses selected through public tenders. In order to minimize the grain collection, storage and other acquisition-related costs, the Agency has reduced the number of intervention warehouses and storage tariff rates, as well as using the available stores to their full capacity.
From the date of Lithuania’s EU accession, the Agency will carry out grain, sugar, meat and dairy intervention and will also implement intervention measures in the fruit, vegetables and fish sectors. The Minister of Agriculture signed a decision on 26 November 2001, approving the guidelines for the organization of sugar price support based on quotas. The Ministry is also working on the procedures of butter intervention.
In selling products, the Agency follows the EU principles of intervention agency operations. Public tenders held by the Agency are announced in an information supplement of the official state bulletin Valstybes Zinios. In addition, information about tenders is published in three languages (Lithuanian, English and Russian) on the Agency’s website: http://www.litfood.lt
The surplus of products, purchased in the 1998-2001 period (including meat and dairy products in 1999-2000) was sold through the Agency’s tenders at the floor sale prices fixed by the Lithuanian Minister of Agriculture, which are lower than production costs on the domestic and foreign markets. As a result, the Agency has incurred losses (intervention expenditure), which are covered from the Agriculture Support Fund as well as the Special Agriculture Support Programme as of 2001 under the Lithuanian Government decision No. 617 of 21 May 1998