MILK-NEWS

http://www.europeanmilkboard.org

Newsletter as PDF

download here a pdf version

Contact

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

PDF-Version download here

Contact

EMB - European Milk Board asbl
Rue de la Loi 155
B-1040 Bruxelles

Phone: +32 - 2808 - 1935
Fax:     +32 - 2808 - 8265

office@europeanmilkboard.org
www.europeanmilkboard.org

Dear Dairy Farmers and Interested Parties,

For decades, EU farmers have been complaining - and rightly so - about the cheap food policy of the EU, the growing power of the multiples retailers and the ongoing price-cost squeeze at farm level that inevitably results in the exit of more and more farmers from the sector. The start of 2013 has yet again shown the regulatory and profit imbalance in the food supply chain.

The power enjoyed by international retail multiples and their ability to exert pressure has never been more evident. Nor has the breakdown in regulation outside the farm gate. The horsemeat scandal has arisen, in the first instance, through illegality but let us be clear: It is ultimately a direct consequence of EU policymakers giving almost complete control of our food supply chain to large multiple retailers who at this stage effectively dictate the price of food and the margins available to primary producers.  

While the horsemeat controversy clearly has not been good for the EU food industry, it does present us with an opportunity and also further justifies the EMB call for a Market Monitoring Agency. We farmers produce a quality product and we must receive an adequate return from the marketplace. The EU - and in particular our elected Governments and 754 MEPS directly elected by us as producers and consumers - has a duty of care to us to ensure that the food we eat is safe, that it is labelled correctly, and that no one link in the chain is allowed to assume to itself the power to dictate terms and margins to the other links. That duty of care also extends to moving farming and food production on a sustainable basis in both environmental and farming terms for the years to come.

The multiples sometimes claim to speak on behalf of the consumer. Nothing could be further from the truth; their agenda is profit for themselves and themselves alone. Our elected representatives know this but they have failed consistently to do anything about it by way of tackling the multiples once and for all. The horsemeat controversy has been damaging but now provides the policymakers with an opportunity to address the problems in the supply chain and the EU Market Monitoring Agency provides the ideal vehicle to identify the margins along the supply chain, the weaknesses in the supply chain and the measures needed to address these weaknesses.   

The policymakers now have their opportunity. The time for inertia is finished. For the sake of every consumer in the EU, policymakers must stand up to the multiples and address this problem once and for all – we might never have a better chance.

John Comer (Member of the EMB-Board and President of ICMSA)

The European Commission: new legislative proposals planned for the milk market

As already announced at the big dairy farmers’ demonstration in Brussels at the end of last November, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, plans to put forward new legislative proposals in 2013 for the milk market. As soon as the reform of the European Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets has been completed by the middle of the year, these proposals for the milk market are to be tabled as quickly as possible. The EU Commissioner is currently discussing them with milk market experts, including the EMB. Dacian Ciolos must hurry up – not only because of the dire economic situation of European milk producers, but also because his term of office ends in October 2014.

The European Commission’s new proposals for the milk market are of great significance for milk producers.

read more...

Interview: French proposals for regulating the milk market

In the following interview the President of Office du Lait in France, Paul de Montvalon, explains the plans of the French Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, for regulating the milk markets in Europe. 

What is Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll’s proposal/concept, what are the main important points?

What the minister proposed to the working group meeting was a supply management system that would replace the quotas after 2015. He specified that this system must be free and must complete the inadequate Milk Package, as it would not prevent an abnormally severe drop in the farm-gate milk price.

read more...

Position stated in Brussels confirms the severe imbalance in the food chain

On 13 February, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels published its own-initiative opinion "The current state of commercial relations between food suppliers and the large retail sector".

According to the EESC, in every EU country a handful of large retail chains controls most of the market, thus forming an oligopoly. In the opinion of the EESC, this position gives the oligopolistic companies huge bargaining power over the suppliers upon whom they can impose trading conditions that are nowhere near balanced. The retail chains are only in competition with one another in relation to the consumer. They vie with one another for their customers, but there is scarcely any visible pressure of competition with regard to suppliers.

read more...

Big demonstration of milk producers in Germany announced

The German Dairy Farmers’ Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter, BDM) – one of the two German member organisations of the EMB – is calling on every dairy farmer to attend a big demonstration in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, on 11 April 2013. The occasion is the half-yearly conference of the German Ministers of Agriculture on a federal and state level.

read more...

EMB Calendar

Please find below some of the most important events in March 2013:

  • 5.03.: Meeting with the Finnish farmers’ association in Brussels

  • 6.03.: Meeting of the EU Commission’s advisory group milk in Brussels

  • 25./26.03.: EMB General Assembly in Brussels

read more...

>

Full Texts

>

The European Commission: new legislative proposals planned for the milk market

As already announced at the big dairy farmers’ demonstration in Brussels at the end of last November, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, plans to put forward new legislative proposals in 2013 for the milk market. As soon as the reform of the European Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets has been completed by the middle of the year, these proposals for the milk market are to be tabled as quickly as possible. The EU Commissioner is currently discussing them with milk market experts, including the EMB. Dacian Ciolos must hurry up – not only because of the dire economic situation of European milk producers, but also because his term of office ends in October 2014.

The European Commission’s new proposals for the milk market are of great significance for milk producers. Although the ongoing reform of the CMO of Agricultural Markets with the introduction of appropriate mechanisms such as the voluntary supply constraint represents an important step forward, the requisite change of system with supply management in the milk markets is still lacking. Unfortunately, because of the political majorities and the influence of the agro-industry on policy-makers, there have never been changes beyond strengthening the safety net in times of milk market crises.

This became clear recently in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee vote on the reform of the Organisation of Agricultural Markets in late January and will presumably be evident in the vote of all the MEPs in the plenary on 12 March as well. After the plenary vote there will be special negotiations – the “trilogue” – between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission to achieve a political consensus on the Organisation of Agricultural Markets, presumably by June. This will depend more than anything on how the member states conduct themselves in the European Council. With the exception of Poland, Lithuania and France, so far the majority of the member states, with the German federal government to the fore, has rejected any regulation of the milk market.

In the view of the European Commission, the completion of the reform of the European Organisation of Agricultural Markets / Common Agricultural Policy as a whole is the precondition for new draft legislation on the milk market being put forward. A lack of consensus in Brussels on the EU agriculture budget for 2014-2020 and thus on the financial basis of the reform could therefore delay the completion even further. In early February the EU member states put forward a proposal on the budget, yet there is no certainty that it will be accepted by the European Parliament.

Christian Schnier (EMB)

>

Interview: French proposals for regulating the milk market

In the following interview the President of Office du Lait in France, Paul de Montvalon, explains the plans of the French Minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, for regulating the milk markets in Europe.

 

What is Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll’s proposal/concept, what are the main important points?

What the minister proposed to the working group meeting was a supply management system that would replace the quotas after 2015. He specified that this system must be free and must complete the inadequate Milk Package, as it would not prevent an abnormally severe drop in the farm-gate milk price.

He proposed the setting up of a European milk monitoring agency that would study the volumes and prices of milk collected in Europe. A threshold milk price would be defined, and when the price falls below this threshold the Commission will send an alarm signal to all the dairies asking them to collect lower volumes. If in the following month they see the price of milk rises, the monitoring agency will continue its monitoring role. On the other hand, if the price continues to fall they will penalise all the dairies that have not cut their volume. The money from the penalties could be redistributed among the producers that had agreed to reduce their volume. All that remains to be defined is the threshold price that triggers off the alarm, the amount of the penalty and the composition of the monitoring agency.

 

What is the APLI position on this proposal?

The positive thing is that they have finally realised that a supply management system is necessary and that the market cannot be left to its own non-transparent devices. Their proposal is a first step that is attractive but inadequate, for it does not strengthen the producer and gives the producers no lever to adjust volumes.

  • In fact there is nothing to stop a dairy not reducing volumes, paying the penalty and then passing the penalty on to the producers, on the farm-gate price.

  • This system is ineffective when there is an increase in the prices the farms pay for raw materials (soya, fuel, manpower, etc.).

  • No difference is made between the dairies that go for both volume and added value (cheese, cream, high-end products, etc.) and those that seek only volume on products with a low added value (industrial products, butter and powder).

To complete this system what is absolutely necessary is to set up horizontal, independent producer organisations that will be alerted by the European monitoring agency, will ask the producers to reduce volumes, and will then apply the penalties to those that do not reduce their volume, and of course all producers must be included in this system, irrespective of whether they supply their milk to a private or a cooperative dairy.

It is absolutely essential to include in the milk pricing system a production price or raw material price index to guarantee the milk producers a return. With co-operatives there must be at least an interface in the co-op to defend the producers and separate the upstream part of the co-op from the downstream part.

 

Why do you think Stéphane Le Foll put forward this proposal?

The minister put forward this proposal because in France there is a significant number of large farms that are switching from milk production to cereals, and the financial situation on the farms is dire; and also because the price of milk is falling even though France is not meeting its quota and there is a shortage of milk.

Milk production is being concentrated in the West of France, which will cause pollution problems owing to intensification and depopulation in disadvantaged areas.

It is obvious that there are politicians and economists in France today who are convinced that effective regulation of production volumes is indispensable to saving dairy farming, but will they find enough allies in Europe and will they be strong enough to face the lobbies of libertarians, financiers and speculators that dream of conquering the world market?

Paul de Montvalon (President of Office du Lait)

>

Position stated in Brussels confirms the severe imbalance in the food chain

On 13 February, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels published its own-initiative opinion "The current state of commercial relations between food suppliers and the large retail sector".

According to the EESC, in every EU country a handful of large retail chains controls most of the market, thus forming an oligopoly. In the opinion of the EESC, this position gives the oligopolistic companies huge bargaining power over the suppliers upon whom they can impose trading conditions that are nowhere near balanced. The retail chains are only in competition with one another in relation to the consumer. They vie with one another for their customers, but there is scarcely any visible pressure of competition with regard to suppliers.

In addition the EESC makes it clear that the various players’ pricing and margins are greatly lacking in transparency. Because of the non-invoiced discount granted to the wholesalers, the price paid to the supplier does not reflect the real return achieved by the suppliers with their products.

The EESC is convinced that there is no freedom of contract in a situation in which one of the contracting parties can force its terms and conditions on its trading partners. The abusive practices have negative consequences not only for suppliers but also for consumers, especially in the long term.

The self-regulatory measures of companies in the food chain do not produce the necessary results. The codes of conduct envisaged will not bring a new balance into trade relations. By their very nature abusive practices must be outlawed, and justifiably so.

That is why the EESC emphatically calls on the European Commission to abandon the principle of self-regulation and present binding legislation for improving the situation in the food chain and promoting fair competition.

Christian Schnier (EMB)

 

>

Big demonstration of milk producers in Germany announced

The German Dairy Farmers’ Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter, BDM) – one of the two German member organisations of the EMB – is calling on every dairy farmer to attend a big demonstration in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, on 11 April 2013. The occasion is the half-yearly conference of the German Ministers of Agriculture on a federal and state level.

The aim of the demonstration is to draw the attention of politicians and high-ranking officials once again to the dire economic situation of dairy farmers. More than anything the German government must realise at long last that a prompt solution to the problems is indispensable, and that it cannot endlessly block any form of milk supply management on the EU level. A convoy of tractors and a farmers’ conference in conjunction with local NGOs the day before and after the demonstration will reinforce the demonstrators’ demands.

The European Milk Board calls on all milk producers in Europe to support their fellow farmers in Germany and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them at the demo in Berchtesgaden in April.

More details can be obtained from the EMB Office (office@europeanmilkboard.org) at any time.

Christian Schnier (EMB)

>

EMB Calendar

Please find below some of the most important events in March 2013:

  • 5.03.: Meeting with the Finnish farmers’ association in Brussels

  • 6.03.: Meeting of the EU Commission’s advisory group milk in Brussels

  • 25./26.03.: EMB General Assembly in Brussels

Impressum

European Milk Board asbl
Rue de la Loi 155
B-1040 Bruxelles
Phone: +32 2808 1935
Fax: +32 2808 8265
E-Mail: office@europeanmilkboard.org
Website: http://www.europeanmilkboard.org