EU farm ministers seek solutions for troubled dairy sector

BRUSSELS – Over three hundred protesting dairy farmers from across Europe gathered outside the European Union headquarters in Brussels yesterday ahead of a farm ministers’ meeting to discuss the crisis in the milk sector.

The extraordinary meeting was called at the request of France, which is pushing for fresh measures to counter a slide in prices that prompted a delivery boycott by milk farmers.The ministers will discuss proposals put forward by France and solutions suggested earlier by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm in charge of farm policy, but it is unlikely these will result in any new decisions.The French proposal for new dairy regulations has won the support of a majority of the EU’s 27 member countries, but EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has said many of their suggestions had already been implemented or discussed.Protesting dairy farmers suspended their delivery boycott last week to await the outcome of the meeting, but have warned that they would restart the strike and harden their position if their demands were not met.Some farmers hurled eggs, waved flags and placards and rang cowbells, while others let off firecrackers and chanted behind barricades manned by police in riot gear.’We intend to take the protest very far if they don’t listen to us,’ warned Regis Mainguy, a dairy farmer wearing a cow costume and waving a French flag.’This is no longer funny. If it means we become violent, then so be it,’ Mainguy said.TOO MUCH MILK The farmers want the Commission to remove excess milk from the market and cut milk quotas by five per cent to boost prices. The EU said in 2003 that it planned to phase out the quota system by March 2015.’We want to make sure that demand and supply are in line, we want to reduce the quantity of milk produced in Europe and we want decisions that will take care of that,’ said Romuald Schaber, president of the European Milk Board, a dairy union representing over 140 000 farmers.’There is simply too much milk. We all need to reduce the amount of milk we produce, but no one can act on his or her own. This is why we need to have a European system or framework.’Fischer Boel said ahead of the meeting that she would brief the ministers on ideas that she had already suggested to help the farmers and did not expect new regulation for the sector.’We need to find some solution on how the primary producers and the industries work together and find a price level where farmers can survive,’ Fischer Boel told reporters. ‘But a market regulated by the Commission on the level of production and price, I’m not sure this will be supported.’ Farmer unions have pushed for the establishment of a pan-European institution to regulate milk supplies. They want to create a monitoring agency in which all actors in the market, including farmers, consumers and politicians, are represented.- Nampa-Reuters