Xinhua, Brussels, January 19 The European Commission approved 13 dairy product marketing projects proposed by 11 EU member states on January 19, and planned to spend 17.9 million euros to help EU dairy farmers in trouble seize the market.

The 13 projects will last for three years, with a total budget of 35.8 million euros, of which 17.9 million euros will be provided by the European Union, and the rest will come from member countries or the dairy industry. These projects are mainly to help promote dairy products in the EU market.

Marian Fischer Burr, member of the European Commission in charge of agricultural and rural development affairs, said that thanks to the strong support measures taken by the EU, the EU dairy crisis has eased since last summer. She hoped that the marketing plan adopted on the same day could further help EU dairy farmers out of their predicament.

As an important agricultural support measure, the European Commission will approve some agricultural product marketing projects every year to provide financial support for the marketing of agricultural products in the EU market and overseas. Promotion can take the form of participating in exhibitions or holding promotion conferences, aiming to help EU agricultural products actively expand domestic and foreign markets.

After the outbreak of the financial crisis, the EU dairy industry fell into a serious crisis because of the sharp drop in the price of dairy products, and triggered many large-scale protests by dairy farmers. To this end, the European Commission launched a round of marketing project bidding specifically for the EU dairy industry in July last year.