EU sells 1.4 mln T intervention grain for food aid

                                
   * Half of 2.8 mln T for food aid sold since March, data shows
                                
 
                                
 BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - The European Union has sold
1.4 million tonnes of grain allocated from its intervention
stores for a food aid programme, with a similar amount still
left to be sold, EU data showed on Tuesday.
                                
 A total of 2.76 million tonnes of cereals -- mostly barley
-- was ring-fenced by the EU out of its intervention stocks to
fund the aid programme for the bloc's "most deprived persons",
with sales starting in March. [ID:nLDE68T239]
                                
 "By 8 April, 1.4 million tonnes had been disposed of,
leaving a similar quantity in storage, mainly in Hungary,
Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia," read an internal
briefing paper by the EU's executive, the European Commission.
                                
 Sales under the programme have not yet begun in Hungary,
where 380,000 tonnes of stored grain have been earmarked for
programme including 115,000 tonnes of wheat, the paper showed.
                                
 France, which was allocated the largest volume under the
programme at 858,471 tonnes, had cleared sold most of that
amount for sale by the end of March. [ID:nLDE72U2D5]
                                
 Under the programme, the EU awards grain through a tender
process to companies that, in exchange, commit to distributing
food products of an equivalent value to charities.
                                
 Last year, the Commission proposed changes to the food aid
scheme that would require EU governments to provide an
additional 25 percent of funding on top of the maximum amount of
500 million euros ($726.4 million) from the EU executive.
                                
 But EU governments have been unable to reach agreement on
the proposals, with several member states, including Germany and
Britain, opposed to the scheme, arguing that food aid should be
organised at national level.
                                
 (Reporting by Charlie Dunmore, editing by Rex Merrifield)