Dairy farmer representatives from 14 European countries aligned to the European Milk Board (EMB) will meet in Dublin Airport’s Carlton Hotel for the three days Feb 22 to Feb 24 inclusive to discuss and respond to the ‘Milk Package’ presented by Commissioner Ciolos last December. The Irish constituent of EMB, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) will act as liaison for any interested Irish or English language media and will happily facilitate any enquiries. The conference will address several of the most notable problems around the European Dairy Sector including proposed mandatory contracts for milk suppliers and the introduction of an EU-wide system to address the present utterly unfair pricing system that so blatantly favours massive retail chains to the disadvantage of both milk producer and consumer. The conference will also address the need for a revamp of Europe’s farm organisations.

A press conference will take place at 9.30 on the morning of Thursday 24 at the Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport, at which leading EMB spokespersons – including Romuald Schaber, President of EMB, and Sieta van Keimpema, Vice President of EMB – will attend to brief interested media* about the progress made and answer questions about the likely direction of Europe’s dairy sector and the necessity of gaining a EU-wide consensus on the need to implement a more just and transparent retail price breakdown.

EMB is particularly concerned that not a single measure proposed in Commissioner Ciolos’ package would prevent the kind of catastrophic market collapse that occurred over the 18 months to mid-2010. Price has recovered to some degree, but where are the safeguards against a similar collapse and when will the Commission move to give the sector the stability it so badly needs?

This conference represents a valuable opportunity for Irish media to see exactly where the Irish dairy sector – on which so much of our export-led recovery will depend – is positioned vis-à-vis our European counterparts and to compare the problems and solutions coming from the different national constituents of this progressive and fast-growing European-wide dairy farmer union.

*A full interpretation service will be provided

Contact:

EMB press office: Silvia Däberitz (DE, EN, ES, FR): 0049 2381 4361200