Dairy farmers fail in price protests

PROTESTING dairy farmers have failed to win European action to boost milk prices despite widespread blockades and street demonstrations.

Angry farmers brought dairies to a halt across Europe as they protested against the slump in wholesale milk prices.

European officials made some concessions – by bringing forward the payment date for some 2010 subsidies – but said the planned increase in quotas was not responsible for the drop in prices: that was due to a drop in demand.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said farmers had to produce less milk because there was no demand.

In France more than 12,000 farmers blocked access to 92 dairy plants across the country while 900 were on the streets in Brussels targeting European Union agriculture ministers meeting to discuss the crisis.

Farmers’ leaders say milk wholesalers have been exploiting them as prices have slumped since last April – the present price of 21centimes a litre is 30% down on last April.

Ms Boel announced last night that dairy farmers would get access to 70% of the planned 2010 subsidies and milk wholesalers they will get aid to turn some of the milk into butter and stockpile it.

Quotas were introduced in 1984 in efforts to get rid of the massive butter mountain – which at its height totalled 1,283million tonnes in store. They are due to end in 2015.

French agriculture minister Michel Barnier said he did not want quotas to be abolished until they had found another means to control production – and he felt the rise in quotas over the past two years had “played a part” in the price slump.