Europe’s milk producers turn up the heat

Faced with a worsening crisis in Europe’s milk sector, an extraordinary meeting of European agriculture ministers has been called for October 5.

The ministers are to discuss proposals by France and Germany for intervention to tackle the crisis.
Italy is the 20th EU member state to come out in support of the plan.

Stefano Masini,is an official in the Italy’s biggest Farmers’ Group, Coldiretti. He said, “We should be able to produce a diffferent economy. We could have a different type of distribution, for example, automatic machines providing milk placed in schools, hospitals or offices. This would allow people to buy a litre of milk for one euro, a good quality litre of milk.”

Coldiretti is calling on the government in Rome to allow new forms of distribution for milk so that producers can enter new markets.

Europe’s milk producers claim they’re paying out more than they’re getting back from the sale of their produce.

Some 80,000 dairy farmers across Europe have joined the protest that has been going on for almost two weeks. They’ve dumped more than a million litres of milk in protest.

Spanish farmers have thrown tens of thousands of litres on a field near the city of Santiago in the northwest of the country.

Many dairy farmers claim they’re facing financial ruin with a phased removal of EU quotas that have artificially propped up prices.

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tags: Agriculture, Europe