- Title: FRANCE: French dairy farmers call for a European-wide strike over low milk prices
- Date: 11th September 2009
- Summary: GERMAN COLOURED COW NEWS CONFERENCE TAKING PLACE PROTESTERS APPLAUDING ROMUALD SCHAPER, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN MILK BOARD, AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) ROMUALD SCHABER, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN MILK BOARD, SAYING: "We feel like we have been left in the lurch by politicians, everything the politicians have done so far hasn't done anything at all to help t
- Embargoed: 26th September 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Industry,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1TYBCA2GBUJ7ZDRF7X7K8GZ50
- Story Text: French dairy producers launched a "milk strike" on Thursday (September 10), which they hope will spread across Europe and force the authorities to take more action to counter a slump in the dairy sector.
French dairy unions the OPL and APLI called for producers to throw their milk away and not deliver to dairies, after a meeting of the European Milk Board (EMB), a dairy farmers lobby.
The protesting farmers are hoping the threat of shortages in shops in the coming days will prompt a swift response from the authorities, although the impact of the strike may be limited given that France's main farm union, the FNSEA, opposes it.
"The problem today is that we are in a system of market deregulation ruled by supply and demand. Today producers are paid a very low price for their milk, lower than what it costs to produce it so not only they are not making any money but they are loosing money. The situation is unbearable, so unless our politicians understand that this is a dire situation, it will end up in a disaster because producers are quickly disappearing one after the other" said Nicolas Coudray, spokesman for the French milk producers association on Thursday (September 10).
The EMB stopped short of calling for a European-wide milk strike, with its president Romuald Schaber saying anti-cartel rules in Germany prevented a similar call there.
But Schaber and representatives from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg told the gathering in Paris they would personally participate in the milk strike.
The EMB is notably calling for measures to raise prices paid to farmers to 40 euro cents a litre, compared to lows of around 20 cents this year, to bring prices above production costs.
It also wants the European Union to freeze planned increases in milk quotas, a move opposed by the EU's executive that says it has already taken steps to shore up the dairy sector.
"We feel like we have been left in the lurch by politicians, everything the politicians have done so far hasn't done anything at all to help the situation. So the French colleagues here have said that they will stop supplying milk and will ask the other suppliers in Europe to join the strike in solidarity with the fight for a better situation" said the EMB president Romuald Schaber.
After a price spike in 2007, global dairy markets have deteriorated sharply over the past year, fuelling protests by farmers in France and several other European countries. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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