Much like some of theirAmerican contemporaries, dairy farmers in Europe are growing increasingly frustrated over the low milk prices. Yet, the actions dairy farmers have taken to express their frustrations is quite different from the lobbying being done by the dairy industry in the United States. The anger has about boiled over, and so today, in an act of protest, dairy farmers watered fields in Belgium with roughly 3 million liters of fresh milk.
This is just another step dairy farmers have taken to express their frustration and protest the current pricing situation. According to a story in Reuters, farmers have previously blocked deliveries, held back supply, and thrown away millions of liters of milk. The farmers blame the European Commission and local governments for “what they argue is a failed liberalization and milk quota system.”
According to the story for Reuters, in 2007 dairy experienced a price spike, but following this spike prices dropped dramatically for dairy around the globe. In Europe prices have fallen to roughly 20 (euro) cents per liter. “Most farmers say about 40 cents per liter is needed to cover costs and generate a basic revenue.”
“Leaders of the protests say they want the European Union to freeze planned increases in production quotas and on Wednesday they demanded the creation of a pan-European institution to regulate the demand and supply of milk.” Further, the protesting farmers would like to see a monitoring agency created which would have all the milk market stakeholders represented (farmers, consumers, and politicians).
Not all European dairy farmers remain supportive of the protests. Following an agreement reached on July 20 in Spain, in which the producers, wholesalers and government agreed to use “collective agreements to buy milk at indexed prices,” leading farm unions called off protests.
Still, despite today’s actions, and the other acts of protest before it, the European Commission, the body in charge of farm policy for the 27 Union members denies the current system is to blame for the low prices. The quota system is set to expire in 2015.
To read the story in Reuters, click here.
Posted: 09/16/09
