At the Agriculture Council on Monday 30 March, Belgium will be calling on the European Commission to take action to tackle the growing imbalances on the dairy market.
A Belgian note on the subject is supported by Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
According to the Belgian authorities, the continuing rise in European milk production at a time when global demand is growing more slowly, is putting increasing pressure on prices. Milk deliveries in the EU reached around 135 million tonnes in November 2025, compared with 133.7 million over the same period in 2024, according to the EU Milk Market Observatory.
At the same time, the Belgian note highlights the fact that prices paid to producers have fallen sharply. The European average fell from around €53/100 kg in September 2025 to €49/100 kg in December.
In Belgium, the situation is seen as “particularly worrying”: the average price of milk paid to producers fell to €38.8 per 100 litres in January 2026, a drop of 30% in one year (see EUROPE 13833/4).
Drawing on the experience of the 2016 crisis, Belgium is asking the European Commission to examine without delay the activation of a temporary and voluntary programme to reduce milk production and the mobilisation of the agricultural crisis reserve in order to support the most exposed farms. Public intervention prices for dairy products were set in 2003 and no longer reflect inflation or the evolution of production costs, according to the note (https://aeur.eu/f/lbq ).
The EU Council raised the issue at the end of January (see EUROPE 13795/16). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)