Copa-Cogeca has expressed its  disappointment at the lack of decision amongst EU Farm Ministers attending this week’s Farm Council meeting to take  measures to alleviate pressure on EU milk producers.

“European dairy producers  wanted a clear signal from EU Agricultural Ministers about the short and long-term developments in the dairy sector. World competition is increasing and we need a strong sector  that can compete on the world dairy market. Global demand for dairy products is predicted to be positive in the medium-term, forecast to grow by 2.3% annually up to 2020. Farmers need to be in a position to make use of these growing market opportunities. But there is a real cash flow recovery problem in the sector, which has impacted on milk producers’ incomes,” said Copa-Cogeca Working Party Chairman Mansel Raymond.

“In order to take  advantage of the market opportunities, we wanted to alleviate pressure on producers. We wanted to ensure that money from the milk superlevy is kept in the sector and that measures  are taken in order to ease the burden on milk producers who are desperately trying to recover their cash flow. We are disappointed by the lack of decision from Ministers today on the issue”.

In a high-level meeting with the Greek Presidency, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen also highlighted the extreme price volatility that is affecting European milk producers. Speaking afterwards Mr Pesonen said: “It  is vital to maintain current tools to address the increased market volatility, like public intervention. In the longer term, we need to discuss further how to address the increased price volatility in a market-orientated way, and complementary to the milk package provisions.”