The European Milk Board asbl (EMB) welcomes the new project between Die faire Milch Germany and PENNY that has been officially presented today. In a new type of tripartite agreement, PENNY as the retailer, Die faire Milch as the supplier and producer cooperative Fair Food have formalised their joint effort to bring transparency and fairness to calculations and price setting in the value chain.
“This is a new way of transparency that is the first of its kind. It puts dairy farmers in Germany on an equal footing in contract negotiations. This not only inspires trust, it also makes it possible to have real discussions as equals,” says EMB President Kjartan Poulsen as he praises the project. “We are very happy that the “Die faire Milch x milprima” product is now available in all PENNY supermarkets across Germany.”
EMB Vice-President Elmar Hannen underscores that with this innovative approach, Die faire Milch/ Fair Milk Germany has, once again, shown how pioneering dairy farmers are. “Such projects set the standard in Europe,” says Hannen. In fact, there are impressive Fair Milk projects in other countries as well. Fairebel in Belgium, FaireFrance in France, Di fair Milch Säuliamt and Faireswiss in Switzerland, and D’fair Mëllech in Luxembourg are also leading the charge in this socially-relevant producer movement. They have shown how fair producer prices can be successfully implemented in Europe and have definitively changed the face of the sector for the better with these social innovation projects.
While such initiatives are doing impressively well, it is still up to policy-makers to create fair framework conditions for all producers. “It is high time for the EU and national governments to provide farmers fair market conditions. That is the only way for producers to ensure that they can remain in food production in the necessary numbers in the long run,” stresses Kjartan Poulsen.
The EMB calls on policy-makers to stop marginalising producers and to finally treat them fairly as an integral part of society. The Fair Milk projects in Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg have made a massive contribution in the last fifteen years and will remain pioneers in the future as well. It is now up to policy-makers to support this positive development and, at the same time, to ensure fair conditions for all European farmers through policy decisions.
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