Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the 7th meeting of the Milk Market Observatory in Brussels on Tuesday 30 June, the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) and the European Milk Board (EMB) jointly called for immediate recognition from the EU of the current crisis being experienced by dairy producers and for the implementation of measures to prevent future crises.
“The persistence with which the European Commission maintains its liberalisation policy, regardless of the future of European dairy farmers, seems unacceptable to us”, a press release from the two organisations says.
With the abolition of quotas, a whole range of tools that were at the dairy sector's disposal has been dismantled. “Global price volatility causes cyclical crises, resulting in a drop in the number of dairy farmers. The consequent social, environmental and economic consequences strongly impact European territories”, state ECVC and EMB.
The regulation on the common organisation of the markets provides very few regulation and intervention mechanisms for dairy farmers. The two organisations argue that the existing instruments need to be re-evaluated in light of the end of quotas on 1 April 2015. “A concrete risk of a discontinuation of milk collection in Spain, prices below 30 cents per litre in a wide range of countries, continuous loss of jobs in the agricultural sector… a dairy crisis is already happening, here and now!”, warn ECVC and EMB. They advocate putting in place “volume reduction” tools and strengthening of the tasks of the European Milk Market Observatory. (Lionel Changeur)