Agricultural storage
The EU has a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which results in prices normally being above world market prices. The EU intervenes in agricultural markets to stabilise prices by building up stocks when prices are low or falling. These items were then stored. In the past these stores have been referred to as the "beef mountain", the "butter mountain", the "wine lake" or the "olive oil lake".
In recent years support buying of individual agricultural items has been replaced by support for EU farmers in accordance with how mich land they have and previous levels of production on it during paticular years. This is called “direct income” support.
In 2012 there was only used € 32.2 millionto cover storage in the whole of EU.
Links
See Common agricultural policy
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Agricultural_products
https://www.gov.uk/intervention-and-private-storage-aid-schemes