Press releases
Dairy farmers in Europe and Latin America disappear but agribusinesses stand to make big
Press release from Via Campasina
La Via Campesina International with representatives from Europe and Latin America are meeting in Madrid from the 14th to 18th of May to affirm their united opposition to the trade agreements which threaten small and medium sized producers from both continents.
The EU is holding a summit in Madrid with Latin American leaders where it hopes to close the aggressive agreements during the Spanish presidency of the EU.
These agreements have no benefit whatsoever to farmers and citizens on either side of the Atlantic.
The EU is attempting to impose 4,500 tonnes of milk powder and 2,000 tons of cheese at low prices on the markets of Central America, against the interests of milk producers in the region.
Colombian Agriculture Minister Andres Fernandez also admitted last Thursday that the controversial agreement between the EU and Columbia would adversely affect more than 400,000 farming communities across Columbia – above all the dairy sector.
In the last years, as opposed to adapting the production of milk to the European Union's internal consumption, the European Commission and council have decided to increase milk quotas in each country with the objective of increasing exports of milk products.
This has caused a drop in the price of milk in Europe and the bankrupting of small and medium sized producers.
The policy of export subsidies stimulates the absurd policy of imposing European exports. It is a threat to Food Sovereignty – the farmers, men and women of La Via Campesina give priority to feeding our populations and communities.
In these terms the only beneficiaries of these agreements are the industries and transnationals involved in distribution and transformation and exporters – not the farmers of Latin America or the European Union.
The delegation of Via Campesina in Madrid reaffirm that the defense of sustainable peasant agriculture is common both to Europe and Latin America, and that these free trade agreements destroy people's food sovereignty.
To this end, we demand that the member states of the European Union and the governments participating in the summit that they do not sign any free trade agreement which goes against the interests of their populations!
News
Press invitation: Dairy Farmer Representatives From 14 European Countries To Meet In Dublin Next Week – ICMSA To Host European Milk Board Conference
Dairy farmer representatives from 14 European countries aligned to the European Milk Board (EMB) will meet in Dublin Airport’s Carlton Hotel for the three days Feb 22 to Feb 24 inclusive to discuss and respond to the ‘Milk Package’ presented by Commissioner Ciolos last December. The Irish constituent of EMB, the Irish Creamery...
Press release: The Agricultural and Rural Convention calls for a European Food Monitoring Agency
BRUSSELS, January 27, 2011 – The Agricultural and Rural Convention 2020 (ARC) presented yesterday its vision to European Parliament at the Committee on Agriculture’s Hearing on the future of the CAP.
Speaking on behalf of the alliance, Professor Michael Dower offered a creative solution to the crucial problem of securing for...
Invitation for the press conference at the Green Week
EMB comments on the „milk package“ of the European Commission Milk producers have to be strengthened and not vertically integrated
Press release: Milk producers can no longer prevent the wrong market system from collapsing - EMB can no longer call on producers to milk less
Hamm, 17.12.2010: „Last week the EU Commission has published disappointing proposals for the dairy market. Not a single instrument was proposed that could prevent the failure of the market that we saw in 2009. In particular milk producers are still not allowed to organise themselves effectively on the market and to adapt their...
Press release: Many more than 1000 milk producers demonstrate in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg today
„Change tack and support a fair agricultural sector”
Strasbourg, October 20th, 2010
Many more than 1000 milk producers from many European countries came to Strasbourg with about two hundred fifty tractors to encourage the EU parliament to initiate a change of direction in the agricultural policy.
„Since the...
Anniversary of the end of the European milk strike
05/06/09: Anniversary of the end of the European milk strike
One year after the European milk delivery strike in May/June 2008, the milk price is worse than ever. After initially positive signals from the politicians, in the end the demands made by the European Milk Board (EMB) failed to be met. The milk market crisis is coming to a head.
Hamm, 05.06.09: One year ago, the downward trend in the milk price spurred EMB dairy farmers – particularly those in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland – to go on strike. For ten days the milk producers in those six countries withheld their milk and blockaded a large number of dairies. Now, one year later, the situation in the milk market is still no better. Quite the opposite, in fact: "Milk prices are at an all-time low – in no country are farmers paid more than 24 cents", says Sieta van Keimpema, Vice-President of the EMB. Often it is a paltry 20 cents per litre that milk producers receive from the dairies. It is now plain to see how important it would have been to implement the EMB’s demands for flexible supply control. That could have prevented the drastic market distortions and the bleeding to death of dairy farms.
The situation was foreseeable
The measures taken by the EU Council of Agriculture and Fisheries and the EU Commission last year further exacerbated the situation, whereby more milk was allowed to be produced despite the fall in demand. "We had warned them long before that the quota increase would put even greater pressure on milk prices, especially given the decrease in demand", says Romuald Schaber, President of the EMB. The EU Commission and the Ministers of Agriculture bear full responsibility through their irresponsible policy of deregulating the market. The European Milk Board’s demands to reduce the volume of milk have so far been ignored, and the crisis has gone from bad to worse.
Measures to defuse the crisis
The EU Ministers of Agriculture have to create the right general conditions for the milk market. The EMB’s demand for flexible regulation of volumes is a plea for a balance between supply and demand. In addition, monitoring of the market should ensure that developments in the milk market are constantly picked up on and analysed. These demands are also supported by the agricultural organisations in the new EU member states. This was confirmed in a joint declaration made by the EMB and the Chambers of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland in the Czech city of Brno on 2 June. And in recent weeks the French dairy farmers have also shown with their protest demonstrations that they are for flexible supply control. They are no longer prepared to put up with milk prices that fail to cover the costs of production.
Time may be a great healer, but not in the milk market. It is all about reacting – properly. That is what the EU politicians have failed to do: so, one year after the end of the milk strike in Europe, decent milk prices and prospects of food sovereignty have flown out of the window.
EMB-day of action in Brussels 25th May
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
the EMB will be there, when the agricultural ministers of the European member states are going to have a conference in Brussels the 25th May 2009. 1000 dairy farmers with a mobile cow barn and their cows will be in front of the EU-Council building and they will present to the ministers once again: It is not possible to gain fair milk prices without a flexible volume control.
24.4.09 Press Release: EMB-Wide Day of Action on 29 April 2009
Thousands of milk producers to demonstrate throughout Europe
Thousands of European Milk Board (EMB) dairy farmers will be demonstrating with their dairy cattle in over ten countries on 29 April 2009 for flexible supply control.
“A flexible volume regulation for fair milk prices” – that is the message milk producers will be sending out to their country’s and the EU’s political decision-makers in their rallies. They will parade with their tractors and dairy cattle outside parliaments and farming authorities to press home their demands. Also in non EMB-countries campaigns of actions are planned. In the Tschech Republic farmers will draw the attention to the catastrophic situation of the dairy sector during a protest walk.
All over Europe, milk prices continue to plummet, creating an ever widening gap between the price paid to milk producers and production costs. For instance in March they were 25 cents a litre (4.2% fat, 3.4% protein) in Denmark and 17-22 cents a litre (4.2% fat, 3.4% protein) in the Netherlands.
The politicians’ responsibility
EMB President Romuald Schaber has no doubt responsibility lies with the politicians: “They can and must create basic conditions that enable the supply of milk to be adapted to demand.” The EMB’s call for a fair agricultural policy is also supported by consumer groups and many organisations from the fields of development aid and environmental protection.
With their political mistakes in the last few months politicians have made a decisive contribution to the current milk market crisis and the attendant drastic plunge in milk prices. Decisions are now required that provide a long-term solution to the problem and prevent the milk market from collapsing. “There is no room for neo-liberal preaching here. That only shows that politicians lack a grasp of the overall situation,” says Sieta van Keimpema, Vice-President of the European Milk Board. The combination to date of unbridled market growth and questionable intervention measures totally undermines high-quality, fair milk production. On 29/04/2009, the European milk producers organised in the EMB and their colleagues in other European countries unite in saying No to the dumping policy hitherto and Yes to a responsible political approach to the milk market crisis:
“A flexible volume regulation for fair milk prices”
27.1.09 Press release: The Commission’s Milk Policy under Public Scrutiny –
Re-introduction of Export Subsidies Reveals Policy is a Mistake
Brussels/Hamm (27.1.2009):
“The export subsidies are practically a logical consequence of increasing the milk quotas, which the EU decided to do under the Health Check last year, flying in the face of the warnings sent out by the European Milk Board. The market is now swamped, the plan being to offload surplus milk onto the world market and developing countries by offering export refunds. In those markets these cheap imports compete with local milk production, and many a small farmer will be forced out of production and into poverty. Promoting exports is also against the interests of many European dairy farmers, since the attendant focus on the world market means prices paid to producers well below European production costs. Like that no European dairy farmer will be able to produce milk in the long run”, said Romuald Schaber, President of the European Milk Board.
This is why this week will see campaigns by member associations of the European Milk Board in several European countries in conjunction with development and human rights organisations. The idea is to tell the general public that export subsidies are rejected both by milk producers in Europe and by social pressure groups.
“What has to be made clear is that it is about not producing in the first place volumes that exceed demand. The mechanisms for this flexible demand-led control of volumes are in place, they just have to be used and applied. The first thing to do, for instance, is to set the 1% quota increase they recently approved aside in the national reserve and effectively remove it from the market by restricting netting. Generally speaking, the market has to be studied in detail once or twice a year to ascertain demand and the market volume in Europe has to be adjusted accordingly. It is cheaper for the taxpayer, it is a basic requirement for fair international trade and it gives milk producers in both the north and south the opportunity to achieve fair prices for their milk”, said Schaber.
“The current fall in milk prices across Europe way below the cost-covering level is clearly the consequence of a political mistake. What has to be done is to get the agricultural policy back in line and to steer it towards demand-led sustainable food production”, added Ernst Halbmayr, Member of the EMB Executive Committee from Austria.
Th blocades of the Greek farmers today show clearly that the under value selling of agricultural products leads all over Europe to deep problems.
Romuald Schaber (Germany) (DE): 0049/1515503 7174
Ernst Halbmayr (Austria) (DE): 0043/6649249635
Sieta van Keimpema (the Netherlands) (EN/NL): 0031/612168000
Sonja Korspeter (FR): 0049/1786021685
21.1.09 Press release: The Commission’s Milk Policy is a Spectacular Failure
Intervention and export subsidies as emergency measures to remedy wrong decisions taken by politicians in Brussels
Brussels / Hamm (21.1.2009):
“The EU Commission is planning to reintroduce export refunds in the dairy sector. Butter and milk powder as well as cheese and other dairy products are to be pushed on the world market with the help of export refunds. At the same time, the instrument of intervention will be used to store thousands of tons of powder and butter. Barely ten months have passed since the EU Council of Ministers of Agriculture decided to increase milk quotas by 2% as of 1 April 2008 and the milk market already threatens to spiral out of control. On top of this, the EU Farm Ministers decided two months ago to further increase production quotas by more than 6% over the next five years. “This is to put the so-called soft landing of the dairy market into practice”, comments Sieta van Keimpema, Vice-President of the European Milk Board.
The milk prices paid to producers have been plummeting since autumn 2008. Dropping to 21 €cents in some parts of Europe, producer prices are not even cost-covering and below subsistence level. Against this scenario, the Commission feels compelled to intervene in the market, acting against its own principles. “The Commission’s approach to liberalise the EU milk market is doomed to fail right from the start”, says Romuald Schaber, President of the EMB.
He goes on: “The dramatic situation on the milk market forces the EU Commission to reintroduce export refunds in order to prevent a total collapse. At the same time, this puts pressure on the EU at WTO level. If, for example, the export refunds were to jeopardize the existing external market protection, the negative consequences for Europe would far outweigh any possible benefit of this measure. In addition, some third countries such as Russia are already debating whether they should disproportionately increase import duties for milk products as a reaction to European export refunds. Basically, past experience has shown that export subsidies paid in the milk-producing markets have a direct negative impact on the countries in the South.
Sieta van Keimpema says: „This is why the European Milk Board (EMB) is very critical about the reintroduction of export refunds. We urge the EU Commission to recommend a departure from its phasing-out plan on 22.01.2009 and suspend the quota increases decided for 2009.”
Schaber emphasizes: „The EU Commission should finally adopt the EMB’s proposals to put a flexible system of quota regulation into place in order to prevent any volumes of milk exceeding demand from being produced. The European milk producers are prepared to adapt their level of production to market demand. This is the only way to implement a milk policy that is beneficial to both producers and consumers with stable and fair prices.”
Romuald Schaber (DE): 0049/15155037174, Sieta van Keimpema (EN/NL): 0031/612168000
Sonja Korspeter (FR): 0049/1786021685
15.1.09 Press release: Milk prices threatening livelihoods, so secure supply at risk
Milk producers across Europe united for fair prices for producers and consumers
Berlin/Hamm (15 January 2009):
In November, the European Ministers of Agriculture decided to increase the quota. The impact is already being felt. “Supply and demand have been knocked totally out of balance. Demand is falling while supply is rising for political reasons. In many European regions, prices paid to producers have already slipped well below the 30 cents mark”, explains Sieta van Keimpema, Vice-President of the European Milk Board (EMB). This poses an acute threat to the milk producers’ livelihood.
The politicians working in tandem with parts of the dairy industry resolved to abandon market regulation, says the EMB. “The prime motivation behind it is to increase the EU’s share of exports”, argues Romuald Schaber, President of the EMB. Something like what hit the world of finance because of the lack of regulatory mechanisms must never be allowed to happen to food production. “Every government’s aim”, he goes on, “must be to ensure supply to the population of locally produced high-quality dairy produce.”
Jean-Louis Naveau, member of the Executive Committee from France, reports on the growing number of milk producers in France joining the European umbrella organisation of milk producers and demanding cost-covering milk-prices and flexible regulation of volumes.
“At first glance low milk prices may seem enticing for consumers because they think they are saving a few cents. But they are bad for all of us, consumers and producers alike. Food is precious and can only remain so if it is produced under good conditions for the environment, man and beast”, Schaber stresses. That means that the producers’ have to receive a fair income that covers their expenditure. The good quality of dairy produce and the security of supply for consumers depend on it.
This is the message that the concept of Fair Milk with its artificial cow Faironika wants to get across. Ernst Halbmayr, member of the Executive Committee of the EMB, explains: “In Austria we already have Fair Milk on the supermarket shelves. When the consumers buy this milk they can be sure that the farmer has received fair pay for his product. There will soon be a certified “Fair Milk” in other European countries, too.”
Romuald Schaber (DE): 0049/1515503 7174, Sieta van Keimpema (EN/NL): 0031/612168000
Sonja Korspeter (FR): 0049/1786021685
