European Milk Board plans December dairy protest and calls for supply control

The deteriorating milk price situation across Europe "is drastic,” according to the President of the European Milk Board (EMB), Romuald Schaber.

He was speaking at the members' meeting of the EMB, where more than 50 milk producers from 15 European countries are gathering in Saint-Brice-en-Coglès, France, to discuss the current market situation and future strategies.

The EMB is a pan European collection of dairy farming organisations, including the ICMSA from Ireland. The group, which tends to be quite radical, is calling for some level of supply control to continue after milk quota abolition.

The (EMB) is planning a media campaign outside the EU Commission building in Brussels on 11 December. “We are dangerously close to the crisis scenarios of 2009 and 2012. The present market situation will drive the farmers out into the streets again,” Romuald Schaber said.

In a statement today, Romuald Schaber said that "the situation in the European milk market is becoming dramatically worse. For months prices have been falling in every country. But that’s not all: when the milk quotas in Europe are abolished at the end of March 2015, the producers will face another price collapse".

He added: “The milk price is in free fall in every European country. Dairies in Belgium, for instance, have already announced they will be paying only 25 cents from January. In France, too, it is likely that prices will drop to an unbearable level. The worst off at present are the Baltic States, where producers are being paid just 16-17 cents a kilo of milk. The reason is the same throughout Europe: Production is totally out of synch with the market, that’s why the market is flooded with milk”.

The EMB leaders are worried that when milk quotas end next year, "the livelihood of many farms will be severely at risk".

The EMB are urging politicians to implement the Market Responsibility Programme (MRP) developed by the EMB. The policy proposes that in times of crisis, production volumes are temporarily defined and adjusted to the market. When demand then picks up again, normal production can be restored. “The MRP must be implemented, or else it will be a catastrophe for Europe’s milk producers,” Schaber warns.