EMB Newsletter March 2012
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European Milk Board
Bahnhofstr. 31
D-59065 Hamm
Phone: 0049/2381/4360495
Fax: 0049/2381/4361153
E-Mail: office@europeanmilkboard.org
Website: http://www.europeanmilkboard.org
Newsletter as PDF
Contact
EMB - European Milk Board asbl
Rue de la Loi 155
B-1040 Bruxelles
Phone: +32 - 2808 - 1935
Fax: +32 - 2808 - 8265
Dear Dairy Farmers and Interested Parties,
The new regulation on the dairy market has just been adopted. During the discussions on the Milk Package, I took part in several talks with MEPs and Paolo De Castro, the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture. We are on good terms with Mr De Castro, but unfortunately that is not enough. Although the Parliament has made significant changes, we still have a long way to go.
The compromise reached is not satisfactory in our view. However, I think there is a real chance that a monitoring agency will be set up in the future. Besides, as Mr De Castro confirmed, the Parliament intends to come up with new rules for the agricultural sector to enable market crises to be anticipated. And I believe that in this sense the work we have done with the EMB was extraordinary. We succeeded in creating the conditions required for the monitoring agency to be set up.
Moreover, the fact that the role of the Parliament was strengthened by the Treaty of Lisbon gives us hope for the future.
It is essential that the producers unite within the EMB. I believe it is our only chance. Together we must all focus on the quota reform that is being debated this year.
So my message to every milk producer is this: never give up the fight! We will succeed in the end, the important thing is to remain united... because unity is the EMB producers’ strength!
Roberto Cavaliere
(Member of the Board of the EMB)
Key opportunity missed! The Milk Package adopted cannot strengthen the producers’ position
The current resolution passed by the European Parliament cannot create the balance needed in the dairy market
Brussels/Hamm, 16.02.2012: “It is a shaky result”, is how the President of the European Milk Board (EMB), Romuald Schaber, summarises the opinion of the European milk producers on the current milk resolution in the European Parliament.
“The regulation adopted refers to contracts between producers and processors but the contracts are not to be compulsory across Europe. That shakes the common market considerably, because now producers can continue to be played off against one another. Producer organisations are to negotiate on behalf of producers, which is good, but the pooling limits of 3.5% of milk production across the EU and 33% nationally are unfortunately much too low”, Schaber explains the critical details.
“A step in the right direction” - Interview with Marc Tarabella, MEP
Astrid Sauvage: Mr Tarabella, thank you for granting us a few minutes to answer our questions. First of all we’d like to ask how, in your opinion, the market will develop in the next few years, given the new conditions that have been created?
Marc Tarabella: I hope it will develop well in the next few years. Personally I was in favour of the old quota system. But the majority of the member states want nothing to do with it, so a system had to be found to replace it. But the agreement now reached is unsatisfactory, I feel.
Croatian Dairy Farmers protest over for the time being
Since the beginning of the year a conflict was smouldering between milk producers and the Lactalis dairy Dukat in Croatia, due to low milk prices. But the crucial phase of the conflict seems to be over now.
After the Dukat dairy’s unilateral announcement of cutting the farm-gate price for milk from the previous 2.67 kuna to 2.3 kuna (about 30 cents) per kilo of raw milk, in January the milk producers of the EMB member organisation HSUPM entered into negotiations with the dairy and the Ministry of Agriculture, but the talks were stopped in mid-February without any result.
India-EU free trade agreement: sacred cow or Trojan horse? – Report on Sieta van Keimpema’s journey to India
At the invitation of the development aid organisations Misereor (www.misereor.org) and Anthra (www.anthra.org) I travelled to India for a week in February, where accompanied by Armin Paasch of Misereor I spoke with many milk producers and street dealers about the impact the planned free trade agreement between the EU and India will have on them. It is impossible to give a comprehensive report on this journey in a short article, so I can give only a brief impression here.
Whilst water-pipes were bursting in the Netherlands owing to the frost, I stepped out of the plane in Bangalore, India, on 3 February at 3 a.m. local time into 20 degrees. The first thing to greet me was a poster from the ING bank group: They have already found the way to India even without a free trade agreement!
USA: Milk production needs to be slashed
In the USA, too, producers in the dairy market are under a great deal of pressure. The large volume of milk prevents fair prices. That is why the Milk Producers Council (MPC), an association of Californian family farms, demands that milk production be slashed.
Switzerland: Launch of a national petition and demonstration by producers on 2 March
The dairy market has currently reached a dead end. The volumes produced are still increasing. Every organisation seems to want to manage the crisis instead of resolving it. Nobody has any concrete proposals to enable the producers to regain control of the volumes produced or the political courage even to demand it. The producers continue to overproduce and the dairy farms continue to melt away like butter in the sun (2.5 a day). The pressure on the countryside continues unabated with dairies threatening to stop collecting milk if the volumes are not large enough or if the farm is too far from main roads.
Belgium: MIG Belgium informative meetings
Throughout the week of 13 February, MIG organised informative debates aimed at milk producers on the subject of “Quotas end in 2015 - and then what??”. We had invited two quality speakers: Paul de Montvallon, President of the French Office du Lait, and Nicolas Bezencon, of Uniterre Suisse.
Nicolas presented the Swiss situation in detail. He explained that just three years after total deregulation, prices are rock-bottom, stocks are piling up and producers have reached a dead end. He stressed the dangers of vertical and/or multiple producer organisations, and how the unity of producers was indispensable if they wanted to have a minimum of clout in negotiations. He presented the scenario that could well be replicated on the European scale.
EMB Calendar
Please find here some of the most important meetings of the EMB executive board in March:
- 06.03.: Meeting of the Advisory Group on Milk in Brussels
- 07.03.: Meeting of the Nyéléni-Forum for food sovereignty in Brussels
- 12.bis 13.03.: EMB members’ assembly in Brussels
- 22.03.: Congress of the French dairy producers’ organisation OPL in Saint Germain en Coglès (Bretagne)
Full Texts
Key opportunity missed! The Milk Package adopted cannot strengthen the producers’ position
The current resolution passed by the European Parliament cannot create the balance needed in the dairy market
Brussels/Hamm, 16.02.2012: “It is a shaky result”, is how the President of the European Milk Board (EMB), Romuald Schaber, summarises the opinion of the European milk producers on the current milk resolution in the European Parliament.
“The regulation adopted refers to contracts between producers and processors but the contracts are not to be compulsory across Europe. That shakes the common market considerably, because now producers can continue to be played off against one another. Producer organisations are to negotiate on behalf of producers, which is good, but the pooling limits of 3.5% of milk production across the EU and 33% nationally are unfortunately much too low”, Schaber explains the critical details. The processors as bargaining partners already have a market share that is triple that of these pooling limits in some cases, so they will always dominate negotiations. Moreover, the articles of the regulation make it very difficult for members of co-operatives to have a producer organisation negotiate on their behalf.
As Schaber stresses, the new provisions cannot guarantee healthy market activities, even if a few approaches are heading partially in the right direction. “What is positive, for instance, is that the recitals of the regulation mention a European price monitoring instrument. But there is no detailed description. Moreover, the name unfortunately implies that only prices are to be monitored”, says Schaber. But that is not enough. The costs of milk production, market supply and demand must also be ascertained by this instrument. In addition to the observation function addressed, the monitoring agency should also have a reaction mechanism to enable market imbalances to be actually reduced.
Just as every house needs a solid foundation, the dairy market also needs a good framework to enable a fair co-existence without distortions in competition. The Milk Package adopted just now does not offer this framework. It includes no clear improvements for the European milk producers; instead, it cements their weak market position. For the EMB it is evident that the policy has to be greatly improved for the good of consumers and milk producers. Together with other civil society groups, the European milk producers’ organisation will continue to make constructive proposals and hold the policy-makers to their responsibility.
EMB press release of February 16th 2012
On 28th February 2012 the Council of the EU approved the proposal. It is expected to be officially signed in March. The rules concerning contracts, producer organisations' negotiation mandates and the volume management system for quality cheese will come into force six months after its signature. The rules should be valid until June 2020.