17.—(1) For the purposes of the provisions of Article 4(2) of the Council Regulation (which concerns changes from direct sales to wholesale delivery and vice versa), the second sub-paragraph of Article 2(2) of the Council Regulation (which concerns replacements of purchasers), and this regulation, a producer may apply to convert, temporarily or permanently, direct sales quota to wholesale quota or wholesale quota to direct sales quota.
(2) Where a producer wishes to convert quota permanently or temporarily in any quota year, he shall submit to the Department an application in such form as the Department may reasonably require, and such application shall—
(a)state the amount (if any) of that producer’s direct sales quota, wholesale quota, direct sales and wholesale deliveries for the quota year in which the application is made, the amount of unused quota which he holds at the time of the application and the amount which he wishes the Department to convert; and
(b)include such other information as the Department may reasonably require in order to assess whether the requirements of Article 4(2) of the Council Regulation and Article 3 of the Commission Regulation (which concerns representative fat content) are fulfilled.
(3) The application referred to in paragraph (2) shall be submitted by the producer to the Department by—
(a)in the case of a permanent conversion of quota, 31st December in the quota year in which the conversion is intended to take effect; or
(b)in the case of temporary conversion of quota, 14th May in any year following the end of the quota year in which that temporary conversion of quota takes place.
(4) Subject to paragraphs (5) and (6), where a producer has permanently converted quota in any quota year, he shall not subsequently in that quota year transfer out quota, of the type to which he has converted, whether temporarily or otherwise.
(5) Where, upon an application to the Department by a producer who has permanently converted quota in any quota year, the Department is satisfied that exceptional circumstances of a type described in regulation 12(6) have resulted in a significant fall in milk production or a significant failure to achieve a planned increase in milk production, which, in the opinion of the Department, could have been neither foreseen nor avoided by the producer at the time of his permanent conversion, it may, in the same quota year in which the permanent conversion occurred, release that producer from the restriction in paragraph (4) to the extent that is required so as to allow the transfer of the amount of quota that the Department considers has remained unused in the particular case.
(6) The restriction in paragraph (4) shall not apply to any producer who, in the immediately preceding quota year, has temporarily converted quota.