The first European Fair Milk Conference was held in Ciney, Belgium, in early November. The aim of the organisers – the European Milk Board together with Faircoop Belgium – was to bring dairy farmers, the retail trade, consumers and politicians together and draw attention to the importance of fairly produced milk.

Fair Milk products are currently on sale in six countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg). Representatives from these countries reported on the respective structure of their co-operatives, the product range, their successes and difficulties in marketing, and aims for the future.

Awarding of the Golden Faironika

At the conference, for the first time the “Golden Faironika” was awarded for special services to sustainable and fair food and milk production. A prize was awarded in each of three categories (Politician/Organisation/Farmer). The EMB honoured former Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos with a Golden Faironika.

Regina Reiterer, EMB

Image Gallery

Shortfilm of the conference (Fairebel)

EMB Press release in English or Dutch

Press release - EMB Members' Assembly

(Saint-Brice-en-Coglès, 21.11.2014) The situation in the European milk market is becoming dramatically worse. For months prices have been falling in every country.

But that’s not all: when the milk quotas in Europe are abolished at the end of March 2015, the producers will face another price collapse. It is against the background of this economically and politically tough situation that this year’s Members’ Meeting of the European Milk Board (EMB) is being held from 20 to 21 November. More than 50 milk producers from 15 European countries are gathering in Saint-Brice-en-Coglès, France, to discuss the current market situation and future strategies.

“The current price situation is drastic”, says the President of the EMB, Romuald Schaber. “The milk price is in free fall in every European country.” Dairies in Belgium, for instance, have already announced they will be paying only 25 cents from January. In France, too, it is likely that prices will drop to an unbearable level. The worst off at present are the Baltic States, where producers are being paid just 16-17 cents a kilo of milk. The reason is the same throughout Europe: “Production is totally out of synch with the market, that’s why the market is flooded with milk”, Romuald Schaber explains. And when the last system of limits – the milk quotas – ends next year, the livelihood of many farms will be severely at risk.

Market Responsibility Programme (MRP)

The milk producers are therefore urging politicians to implement the Market Responsibility Programme (MRP) developed by the EMB. This programme provides effective incentives for farmers to adapt their production volumes to the market. When demand then picks up again, normal production can be restored. “The MRP must be implemented, or else it will be a catastrophe for Europe’s milk producers”, Schaber warns.

In view of the tense market situation in France, Paul de Montvalon, the French member of the EMB Board, is demanding that policy-makers create the basic conditions for producers to join forces. “Current contractual negotiations between producers and the industry are leading to deadlock. More producers must unite for them to have enough clout in the market to influence the content of contracts.”

Véronique Le Floc’h, President of the OPL (Organisation des producteurs de lait) also insists on the need to regulate production in order to guarantee farmers a decent income. Only a fair milk price will allow dairy farmers to cover the additional costs caused by necessary investments. "We can currently observe a phenomenon of 'vagrancy' of dairy farmers, who often work hard without an income.“

EMB campaign of action in December

The members of the European Milk Board are agreed that there is still much to be done in the European milk market. To make this unmistakably clear to the politicians, the EMB is planning a media campaign outside the EU Commission building in Brussels on 11 December. “We are dangerously close to the crisis scenarios of 2009 and 2012. The present market situation will drive the farmers out into the streets again”, Schaber concludes.

Hanna Vauchelle, EMB

Video - Members' Assembly EMB 11/2014 (in German)

On 30 September the Swiss farmers’ union Uniterre, aided by several organisations and personalities, launched a federal people’s initiative aimed at enshrining the key points of food sovereignty in our constitution (the country’s supreme law). Several of the issues supported apply especially to the milk sector.

The concept of food sovereignty was developed by the international farmers’ movement La Via Campesina nearly 20 years ago. It is a global concept that goes beyond food security because it focuses on enabling an agricultural and food policy that clearly defines by whom, for whom, how and why we produce foodstuffs. Its initiators therefore want the confederation to promote cost-covering and diversified farming, capable of supplying healthy foodstuffs that come up to the population’s social and ecological expectations.

Relaunch a farmers’ momentum

The figures for the last twenty years make bleak reading. More than 100,000 jobs have been lost in the agricultural sector, over 40% of farms have closed down, and what we have been seeing is a concentration of production in areas easy for buyers to access, and countryside maintenance in marginal areas: in a nutshell, dual agriculture that does not meet the challenges of the future. Whereas the prices paid to farmers have fallen by 28% in these last few years, consumer prices have risen 10%; inevitably certain players between these two links in the food chain seem to be taking advantage of the deregulation of markets. The initiators demand that the confederation put in place general conditions that guarantee the creation of a more transparent agricultural and food market that benefits farmers and consumers alike.

Management of supply and fair prices

The deregulation of milk quotas has allowed the processing industry and retailers to take hold of the milk sector. It is they who dictate prices and the volumes to be produced. The producers no longer have a say in this. None of the dairy farmers’ political or organisational activities to date has brought about a change in the situation, because there is no longer a legal framework for the market and the regulation of production. Specifically, the farmers are no longer players in their sector. They are subject to it.

To change the goalposts the initiative is calling on the State to support the creation of farming organisations whose aim is to ensure a match between farmers’ supply and consumer needs, such as a market observatory and a regulatory body. It is also calling for a guarantee of transparency in the markets to enable a fair price to be set in each sector. It further calls for the confederation to strengthen its support for local retailing and for regional processing, storage and marketing structures.

Fairer wages and international trade

Uniterre has always stated that every region or population is entitled to protect itself against cheap imports. In return, it must abandon any form of export subsidies. The border has a controlling role that must be used consistently and in solidarity. It must be able to block milk powder or butter exported with export subsidies likely to compete with milk producers from other regions of the world. It must be able to filter, even block products that would harm the maintenance and development of local production.

The text also calls for agricultural workers’ wages to be harmonised on a federal level and no longer on a cantonal level, as at present.

To find out more and download the signature forms go to www.souverainete-alimentaire.ch (in French/German/Italian)

Nicolas Bezençon, Uniterre

As announced by the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Stop TTIP”, they will be taking the European Commission to court over its refusal to officially register the Citizens’ Initiative.

The alliance comprising 300 organisations filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice in November. The ECI intends to collect signatures against the trade agreement of the EU with the USA and Canada – the TTIP and CETA. The aim of these signatures is to make the EU Commission legally responsible and induce the EU to end negotiations on the TTIP and CETA.

The application submitted in July 2014 for the ECI to be registered was declined by the Commission on the grounds that the Citizens’ Initiative was not within its sphere of competence. In the view of the ECI this argument does not stand up, and it is necessary for the undemocratic course of the European Commission to be corrected.

As representatives of the initiative announced in a press release in mid-November: “the EU Commission wants to exclude the people completely.” According to the representatives, the people are not allowed to interfere at all throughout the negotiations, and when the treaties are on the table it will be too late. Another aim of the lawsuit against the Commission is to open the doors for future Citizens’ Initiatives and prevent them being made toothless paper tigers.

Background

The direct democracy instrument of the European Citizens’ Initiative has been in existence in the EU since 2011. It enables EU citizens to call on the European Commission to propose a legal instrument. It has to be supported by at least one million EU citizens from at least seven of the 28 EU states. The European Milk Board is a member of the alliance and supports the initiative. The Citizens’ Initiative can be signed using the following link (the form is available in every language): https://stop-ttip.org/sign/

Silvia Däberitz, EMB

Promotion of exports announced in the milk sector

As EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan announced in mid-November, the large volumes of milk expected after the end of the milk quota are to be disposed of as exports. During his first trip abroad to Germany, Hogan referred in this context to stepping up milk export promotion.

The commissioner’s ideas are, however, misguided. EU dairy farmers themselves and producers the world over will suffer if the massive milk surpluses expected flood the world market, putting downward pressure on prices. And the milk producers themselves run the risk of being hit by a downward price spiral. Instead, to stabilise the markets the foot should be pressed on the production brake in times of milk surpluses. There are reports every now and then of half-hearted appeals by politicians to individual producers, but that falls well short of the mark. Instead, what is needed is a deceleration of production across the board, controlled by general political regulations. 

Debate between Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan and the Committee on Agriculture

The new Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan will be holding discussions with the members of the Committee on Agriculture in Brussels on 3 December. The topics for discussion are the latest developments in the Agriculture Budget 2015, an update on EU measures with regard to the Russian ban on imports, and the ongoing work on legislative proposals for organic production and school programmes. The situation in the agricultural markets (including prospects for the milk market) are also said to be on the agenda. The discussion will be public and broadcast live.

European Parliament: instruments required for the milk sector

The milk sector issue is still on the European Parliament’s agenda. Many MEPs are agreed that instruments are required for the milk market to ensure its stability. There are, however, divided opinions on what these measures are to look like.

On the one hand there are those from the European People’s Party (EPP) saying they prefer market regulation – based on a voluntary restraint on supply. On the other hand there are those who favour promoting/subsidising exports. Furthermore, there are other MEPs who want to implement special programmes for disadvantaged regions. The Green Party MEPs advocate an observatory that can adjust volumes to avoid surplus production. The discussions in the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture are to be followed by an initiative report to be completed in the next few months.

Russian ban on imports: EU plans aid package for the Baltic states

To reduce the consequences for the Baltic states of the Russian ban on imports, the European Commission is planning an aid package of 28 million euros for dairy farmers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These countries are worst hit by the ban on imports; milk prices here in the last few months are about a third down on the previous year. The plan is for Estonia to receive 6.9 million euros of the aid package, Latvia 7.7 million, and Lithuania 14.1 million euros.

The Finnish government is also seeking EU aid for the milk sector. In doing so it hopes to offset to some extent the price collapse brought about by the Russian measures. The EU Commission says it will scrutinise the Finnish request.

China und Australia seal free trade agreement

In mid-November China and Australia concluded a free trade agreement providing for a substantial dismantling of trade barriers. The agreement secures Australian farmers and service-providers better access to the Chinese market. Under the agreement the government in Beijing is initially to allow up to 85 per cent of imports from Australia into the country without surcharges; in four years’ time the Australians are even to be allowed to send more than 90 per cent of their exports to China duty-free – from wine, cotton and milk to copper and aluminium. In this way Australian milk producers will gain duty-free access in four years’ time to China’s lucrative infant food market. There will be reductions in customs duties for other milk products over an 11-year transition period. Customs duties on beef are to cease after nine years.

Next round of negotiations on the TTIP

The 8^th round of negotiations on the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the USA will take place in Brussels from 2 - 6 February 2015.

Coca-Cola selling milk at double the price

The American beverages group Coca-Cola is entering the milk business as of December. Called “Fairlife”, the milk produced by the company’s own filter process is to be low-fat and lactose-free, contain 50% more protein, 30% more calcium and 30% less sugar than traditional milk.

This “super-milk” is to be sold at double the price and to prove a cash cow for the company in a few years’ time. Thanks to the latest health campaigns in the USA, demand for low-fat and low-sugar food with enriched additives is rocketing. It remains to be seen whether the Americans will actually buy the super milk – milk consumption in America is on the decline. There are no plans to distribute it outside the USA.

Silvia Däberitz and Regina Reiterer, EMB

10 December 2014: TTIP talks: “What’s cooking?”

The European Milk Board is the co-organiser of a debate on the TTIP in the European Parliament. Sieta van Keimpema will be making a speech on the TTIP & Agriculture. The conference promises an open and honest debate on the TTIP and the potential consequences for food standards, consumer rights, animal welfare and the impact on the countryside.

To register

For the programme

11 December 2014: Europe is drowning in milk – EMB campaign in Brussels

The European milk lake is growing – the price situation is becoming worse and worse. A repeat of the 2009 crisis is looking increasingly likely. Yet there is no prospect of a solution – a market responsibility programme, say – being implemented by policy-makers.

That is why European dairy farmers will be demonstrating outside the EU Commission in Brussels on 11 December 2014 in a powerful campaign highlighting the urgency of sensible measures. For the EU Commission and some EU states do not seem to understand fully what is at stake: the end of the quotas in April 2015 will exacerbate the situation even further. Without an instrument that can predict and manage crises, the consequences for milk production in Europe will be drastic.

We will meet at 10:30 hours at the Schuman roundabout in front of the European Commission. The action will end at around 12:30 hours. 

19 December 2014: mobilising forces in Brussels

On 19 December the D19-20 Alliance is mobilising forces against economic liberalisation and specifically against the TTIP. The alliance of citizens, farmers, trade unions and NGOs plans to blockade the meeting of heads of state and government in Brussels. Campaigns are also planned in Great Britain.