There have been few headlines lately but several hundred milk producers made a point of bringing attention to the ongoing crisis in the milk sector. They demonstrated, on 20 October in Strasbourg, at the urging of the European Milk Board (EMB), pressing MEPs to promote “fair conditions of competition”.
The demonstrators from France, Italy, Ireland, the Benelux states, Germany and Austria intended to urge the European Parliament, which now has “the right of co-decision on agricultural policy,” to “counter liberalisation with a fair agricultural policy,” explained the organisation’s leader, Romuald Schaber.
“What we are asking for is the creation of a milk price review board, a mechanism that could regulate supply in terms of the evolution of demand more effectively than is the case today, with the aim of maintaining a fair price for producers,” explained François Lucas, president of Coordination rurale.
The European Commission will present a package of measures for the sector before the end of the year. Milk quotas will be abolished in 2015. Milk producers had already demonstrated in Strasbourg, on 14 July 2009, to demand fairer prices and a decrease in milk quotas.
