Brussels, 30/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the EU Milk Market Observatory meeting on Wednesday, Copa and Cogeca warned that the EU dairy market situation has deteriorated rapidly in the past four weeks.
“Without EU action, many producers will be forced out of business by winter”, say the agricultural organisations.
Chairman of Copa-Cogeca Milk Working Party Mansel Raymond said at the meeting: “The market is in a much more perilous state than it was 4 weeks ago, with producer prices far below production costs”. And he spoke of the demonstrations that had been taking place in several rural areas across Europe.
Major exodus of producers. “The EU Commission must act to improve the situation short term so that producers can meet demand which is expected to rise in the medium term. With 88% of milk produced in the EU intended for domestic consumption, the situation must also be taken seriously by all participants in the supply chain”, he argued. He said that, if retailers continue to force prices down, “we will see a big exodus of milk producers causing increased volatility on the market”. A loss of production capacity in the milk sector, he said, would also disturb the meat market.
Copa-Cogeca again set out its demands: - that the European Commission allow member states to advance the direct payments to before 1 December; - that the €700 million that will be taken out of the dairy sector as a result of the 2014/2015 milk super-levy bill be ploughed back into the sector; - that the intervention price (last set in 2008) should be increased to “put a floor in the market”.
The agricultural organisation European Coordination Via Campesina has noted that, at the meeting of the EU Milk Market Observatory, there had, at last, been an acknowledgement that the price of milk is too low for farmers. In the view of Via Campesina, prospects for the near future (end of 2015-start of 2016) are bleak. “Against this background, there is a lack of will, on the part of the Commission, to question what some see as a policy that works: prices fall when production is high and rise when production falls” (our translation). Via Campesina hopes that the Agriculture Council of 7 September will put solidarity among European farmers, market regulation, sharing of production, a system to protect farmers' profit margins through crisis prevention mechanisms, social conditionality on CAP aid, and ending free-trade talks at the centre of policy. (Lionel Changeur)