Let us clear up a common misconception at the very start: The people of Africa need our cheaply produced food to survive. Only our strong, high-performing industries can feed the world. No, European industry cannot do this and should not be doing this either!

Just as it is necessary for us to have a job and to thus make a living, people in Africa must also have the opportunity to earn a livelihood. Such opportunities are destroyed when, for example, EU products are imported at dumping prices and hardly anything is produced locally.

Think about the major outrage in Europe when a factory is shut down, its activities are moved abroad and thousands are left jobless in a single stroke. In our part of the world, such blows can be cushioned to some extent because our general economic situation is comparatively stable. This is, however, not the case in developing countries. Therefore, one has to be careful to ensure that local production structures are strengthened, rather than being destroyed.

Belgian milk producers are currently taking up this task with their colleagues from Burkina Faso. Together with Oxfam-Solidarité, they are setting up micro-dairies in the west-African country. Ibrahim Diallo, president of milk producer organisation UMPL-B in Burkina Faso says, "We have partnered with European - especially Belgian - producers to set up micro-dairies that would provide an economic support system for our producers in Burkina Faso." This is an urgent need because massive exports from Europe could trigger off a rural exodus and create fragile living situations. "This eventually leads to more and more people turning to jihadists for answers," says Diallo, voicing his concerns.

The first contact between Belgian and Burkinabe milk producers came about 7 years ago, as Erwin Schöpges from Belgian milk producer organisation MIG relates: "As part of a supply strike in 2009, we sprayed three million litres of milk in fields in Ciney and unexpectedly received great solidarity from African farmers." This show of solidarity initially came as quite a surprise to Belgian farmers. Generally the message is to send that milk to the hungry in Africa instead of spraying it. "However, local farmers told us that we are the ones causing hunger in Africa in the first place by exporting our milk to the continent at dumping prices," says Schöpges.

Since this first contact, Belgian colleagues have made a number of trips to Burkina Faso, which gave them a clear picture of the situation and allowed them to propose useful support measures. This eventually matured into the decision to set up a highly practical joint project. "We want to contribute to maintaining and improving local milk production. On one hand by setting up and expanding micro-dairies, while on the other, by also ensuring responsible production in Europe, not based on overproduction," says Schöpges, explaining the objectives of the international partnership.

Undoubtedly, Europe must, can and should support Africa in its development - but only with useful projects and not with cheap exports. The latter only aims at increasing European profits by expanding market share in the African market. Arguments claiming that this benefits the African people are not just very shaky, they are knowingly false. At the end of the day, the negative effects of such policies affect us all - even us Europeans, when millions of people leave their countries, fleeing from poverty and war.

Video describing the project

Silvia Däberitz, European Milk Board

Since 2009, crises have become a recurring feature. This was caused by production increase through the so called “soft landing”: The European Commission has increased milk quotas without concern for market situation and market outlook - so the quota system didn’t work any longer. As a result the milk market has experienced a substantial fall in milk prices.

For years now, milk producers have been unable to live off their work. As a result, the producer organisations (PO) of France MilkBoard decided to take things into their own hands by creating POs to reinforce the market position of producers. To this aim and together with their fellow European POs WAFAB from Belgium and MEG Milch Board from Germany as also the National Association of Danish Dairy Farmers Danske Mælkeproducenter, they organised a "Tour of the West" at the beginning of April and appealed to French producers, as also all dairies, to join them.

After a conference entitled "Dairy crisis - the European solution", a series of meetings towards information dissemination and discussion were held from April 5 to 7. These three days of meetings gave dairy farmers a chance to share their experiences and to talk about the current situation. The message was clear: the creation of producer organisations is the only way to achieve real impact during price negotiations!

Emmanuel Binois, co-president of France MilkBoard Greater West, agreed that strengthening POs is of key importance in France and at European level: "The meetings led to a number of exchanges with our German, Belgian and Danish colleagues. Like everywhere in Europe, they are facing the same problem as us: we do not have much power in the face of dairies, which are often large international companies." In his opinion, the creation of cross-cutting, free and independent POs in milk-producing areas would help to truly reinforce the position of producers. "The more we are, the stronger our position in business negotiations. And we could also go further: if we bring together enough producers at national level, we can even envisage creating a European PO in the medium term. Why should borders stop us - this is Europe after all!"

The discussions between producers from different countries showed yet again that the situation is the same all across Europe: Milk prices do not cover production costs. This is also the case in countries like Denmark, where structural changes are much more advanced. "On Danish farms, average debt is around 20,000 euros per cow," states Kjartan Poulsen, president of the National Association of Danish Dairy Farmers Danske Mælkeproducenter. "The debt weighs heavily on our shoulders and on those of many colleagues who have no other choice but to close down," he explains.

"Producers, join us - together we are stronger!"

According to European producers, working shoulder to shoulder and looking for joint solutions - and not fighting against each other - is the only possible way to bring about a change. They believe the solution is, and will have to be, European.

France MilkBoard

EU Regulation on voluntary production planning published

On April 11, the European Commission published an implementing regulation on voluntary production planning. 

According to Article 1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/559, recognised producer organisations, their associations and recognised interbranch organisations in the milk and milk products sector are hereby authorised to conclude voluntary joint agreements and take common decisions on planning the volume of milk to be produced during a period of six months starting from the date of entry into force of this Regulation.

The concerned producer organisations shall then indicate the estimated production volume covered and the estimated time period of implementation to the competent authority.

The clock is ticking: Voluntary agreements and decisions on planning the volume of milk to be produced can be concluded between April 13 and October 12, 2016!

Agriculture Commissioner considers financial incentives to curb milk production

Agriculture Commissioner Hogan has not ruled out talks about new financial incentives to curb milk production. The move shall, however, only be assessed once the Commission has a better overview of the possible margins in the 2016 budget, with sources suggesting that this amount would not be very much.

At the last Agriculture Council on April 11, Hogan already talked about linking state aid of €15,000 per farmer per year to a “freeze in production”. Such a move would allow Member States to provide financial incentives to dairy farmers participating in voluntary volume reduction schemes (under Article 222) during times of severe market imbalance. Ministers will hold a further debate on the market situation at the next Agriculture Council (June 27/28).

European Parliament: Hearing on exceptional market measures (25 May)

A hearing on temporary and exceptional market measures to reduce the crisis in the dairy sector will take place on May 25 in Brussels. MEPs in the Agriculture Committee will discuss the exceptional market measures with key players from the sector (Copa-Cogeca, EDA, Via Campesina and EMB). The European Milk Board will be represented by Romuald Schaber.

Milk Market Observatory

At the last meeting of the Milk Market Observatory in April, the European Commission presented the latest figures for the milk market: European milk deliveries increased in January-February by 7.4% as compared to the previous year (+ 1.7 million tonnes). There were especially significant increases in Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. A further drop in prices is expected.

In the early months of 2016, private storage was petitioned for 60,912 tonnes of butter and 18,750 tonnes of skimmed milk powder together with almost 40,000 tonnes of cheese in the second round. A further 22,600 tonnes of skimmed milk powder were removed from the market in the period from 2-19 April through intervention buying. The largest volumes came from Germany (6,054 t), Belgium (5,792 t), Poland (3,219 t) and Lithuania (2,181 t).

MMO Report 26 April

Confidential TTIP negotiation documents revealed

The confidential TTIP negotiating documents leaked by environmental protection organisation Greenpeace could be a time bomb for the ongoing negotiations. The documents give a detailed description of the state of play and place the positions of the EU and the USA against each other. According to the information from the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", Washington is threatening to block export simplification for the European automobile industry, in order to get the EU to take in more agricultural products. The United States is also said to be against the European precautionary principle and the use of public arbitration courts for complaints from companies.

Agriculture chapter (document Nr. 2) available on TTIP leaks

Wallonia says No to CETA

A majority at the Walloon Parliament formally rejected the ratification of the free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA). The Walloon head of government Paul Magnette had already warned the European Commission that his Parliament would not ratify the agreement in its present form. The investment court system (ICS) was one of the contentious issues.

This step could derail the trade agreement between the European Union and Canada, which was already agreed and adopted in 2014. To enter into force, the agreement must be approved by all 28 EU Member States and the European Parliament.

Resolution text

Regina Reiterer, EMB