In France, Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll announced on Tuesday 30 August that further funding of almost €50 million was being provided for farmers, with priority given to dairy producers who are having to cope with a collapse in prices. This money will complement the aid agreed by the EU in July (EUROPE 11612).
The country’s goal is to reduce national milk production by 5%. The government does not want to go beyond a cut of that size so as not to have to finance restructuring of the sector and to avoid decapitalisation of dairy cattle.
An envelope totalling €150 million has been put in place by the EU to help reduce European production. It will provide compensation of 14 cents per kilo of milk not produced.
Alongside this, €350 million has been set aside by the EU to offer support to struggling livestock sectors. France has been allocated €49.9 million. Le Foll has announced that this sum will be doubled with national funding.
This matching contribution will beef up the European measure to reduce milk production, topping up compensation by 10 cents per kilo not produced. “To avoid culling too many dairy cattle in order to reduce production – something that would destabilise the meat market – the national top-up will be limited to the first 5% of reduced milk production compensated within the framework of the European envelope”, said the minister. Thus, for the first 5% of the cut in production, farmers who have agreed to reduce production will receive 24 cents per kilo. Above that ceiling, compensation will remain at 14 cents per kilo.
In addition, the €49.9 million in aid and its matching national funding will provide assistance to both dairy and beef farms experiencing cashflow problems.
On Tuesday, the dairy group Lactalis reached agreement with French producers on the milk price after three rounds of talks conducted under the pressure of action by producers who have finally called for blockades to be lifted. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)