Belgium
This Friday blockades were also carried out in Belgium for example in front of supermarkets of the chain Carrefour in Waterloo and in Bruges.
As reaction to the protests of the last days, agricultural organizations, the processing industry and the retail met on Friday and agreed to work together in order to find measures until the end of August to support the sector. In return, the protests are to be suspended for a certain time. Here an image of the original document (in French)
On Thursday in Flanders and Wallonia farmers have strongly protested. Around 300 tractors blockaded highways. In Erpe-Mere (Flanders) protests took place in front of the supermarket ALDI and in Goé (Wallonia) farmers demonstrated in front of the dairy Corman. During the protests farmers have talked with the federal agricultural minister Willy Borsus. The farmers left the protest places during the night of Thursday and in the early morning of Friday.
On Thursday six Belgian agricultural organisations - among them also the EMB-organisation MIG and the conservative organisation Boerenbond - have published a joint declaration. It contains the will to search together for a solution in order to guarantee a cost covering milk price including a fair remuneration for labour. Here you see the declaration in Flemish and <link fileadmin dokumente press_release emb-allgemein file>French.
France
On Thursday the French organisations APLI and OPL have published a joint statement together with the German dairy farmers´ organisations BDM and AbL. The statement stresses on the solidarity among farmers in France and Germany. According to the statement, they are supporting every action that points out the disastrous situation in the milk sector. Nevertheless they do not agree to any statements that are blaming the farmers of another country being responsible for the bad situation on the milk market. This joint statement is a reaction to the current protests in France on the frontiers to Germany, where French farmers had criticised German farmers by claiming they would support price dumping. Please see the joint statement in German and French here.
The president of the farmers organization Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d'Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA), Xavier Beulin, has addressed a rather doubtful letter to French farmers. That provoked reactions from other farmers´ organizations and the public: Here you see the answer to the FNSEA letter from Bernard Lannes, farmer and president of Coordination Rurale (an umbrella organization, where also the EMB organization OPL - Organisation de Producers de Lait is a member) in French.
Germany
The organization Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter (BDM) is planning a nationwide week of campaigns, with a big event in Munich on 1 September. The federal teams of the BDM are coordinating currently a protest tour, passing many federal states in Germany. See more about the protest tour on the webpage of BDM (in German).
Farmers of the organization Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter (BDM) visited a dairy in the region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Northeastern Germany to demand action in order to improve the milk price situation.
The German organisation "Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft“ (AbL) published a press release demanding the agricultural minister, Christian Schmidt, and the federal German ministers to take action in favor of a short term reduction of the milk volume. They are also demanding the installation of a crises instrument.
Great Britain
A convoy of tractors has blocked a highway in the region of West Midlands (Central England) on 24th July. Reason was the falling milk price in the UK.
Around 200 farmers from Northern Ireland were protesting with a tractor convoy in front of parliament buildings demanding politicians to take action against the „worst crisis of the Northern Irish history".
British dairy farmers brought their cows to the beach to communicate with consumers about bad milk prices. Pictures about the action on their Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/dimplesthecalf?fref=ts
EU Commission
EU financement of private stockage for butter and milk powder will be extended until February 2016 (old period of time: until 30th September 2015) Also the period for public intervention will be extended until the end of February 2016.
