A group representing EU dairy farmers has said that the recent wave of farmer protests around Europe must be responded to by market reforms to improve their incomes.
The European Milk Board (EMB), of which the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) is a member, said that, even though policymakers have reacted to the protests and made concessions in some countries, farmers “remain at the ready with their tractors to block streets and cities”.
“In the end, it is not about approving smaller or larger subsidies or tax rebates. It is about the entire agricultural sector that has turned into a financial trap for farmers in recent years and decades due to neoliberal policies,” the group said.
“Distribution across the value chain is so dysfunctional that nothing really makes its way to producers and their families.”
President of the EMB, Danish farmer Kjartan Poulsen described the situation in the agriculture sector as “chronically gridlocked”.
“It’s not exceptional situations at national level but a massive imbalance across Europe. That is why we are appealing to EU policymakers and calling on them to finally implement long overdue reforms in order to give producers the possibility to get out of this financial trap,” Poulsen said.
“The issue of income is absolutely central for producers. If this is not solved, the widespread protests will continue,” he added.
Adrien Lefevre, the president of APLI, the French association of dairy farmers, said he is “deeply concerned” about the future of producers.
“We are confronted with more compliance but, at the same time, with a price decline in all production sectors across Europe,” he said.
“We urgently need to send a sincere, strong, positive message to the next generation of farmers if we want to continue playing a central role in food provision in the future,” Lefevre added.
The EMB is calling on policymakers to introduce reforms and to structure the agri-food market in such a way that cost-covering producer prices are possible In the face of “dwindling subsidies and a diminishing willingness to shore up agriculture with taxpayer money”.
“This means that the price paid by processors to producers must consider production costs as well and that the money along the value chain must be distributed fairly at long last,” the EMB said.
The group is calling for an EU-wide regulation that prohibits prices that do not cover production costs; as well as “crisis instruments” to be integrated into EU agricultural policies.