1.Each intervention storage place (‘storage place’) shall have a minimum storage capacity of:
(a)for cereals: 5 000 tonnes, 7 500 tonnes from the public intervention period 2017/18, 10 000 tonnes from the 2018/19 period, 15 000 tonnes from the 2019/20 period;
(b)for rice: 5 000 tonnes, 7 500 tonnes from the public intervention period 2017/18, 10 000 tonnes from the 2018/19 period;
(c)for butter and skimmed milk powder: 400 tonnes, 600 tonnes from the 2017 public intervention period, 800 tonnes from the 2018 period.
Member States with an average annual production of cereals of less than 20 million tonnes may continue to apply from the 2019/20 period a minimum storage capacity of 10 000 tonnes.
2.For the purposes of this Article, the ‘minimum storage capacity’ means a minimum capacity which may not be available permanently, but is readily achievable during the period when buying-in might take place.
3.A paying agency may derogate from paragraph 1 only where it demonstrates that the minimum storage capacity specified in that paragraph is not available and where the replacement storage places have ready access to a river, a sea or a railway connection.