A body representing EU farming unions and agricultural co-operatives has called on the commission to ringfence money from the milk superlevy to help dairy farmers meet global demand.
Brussels-based Copa-Cogeca made the call ahead of Monday’s implementation of the EU milk package and publication of a key market report.
Mansel Raymond, Working Party Chairman, said strong global demand for dairy products is forecast to grow by 2.3% annually up to 2020.
“Farmers worldwide respond to positive market signals. In 2013, EU dairy exports reached 2.7 million tonnes of dairy products, with a value of around 10billion euros. Russia, China and the US have been attractive destinations for our products, with a sharp rise in demand seen in China.
“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. In order to take advantage of the market opportunities, we need to alleviate pressure on producers. We need 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”.
Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said: “Increased price volatility is also a key concern for European milk producers and dairy cooperatives given that it prevents them from making investments and from responding to societys’ demands. This has a severe impact on the 750,000 specialised milk producers across the EU, from the most productive systems to mountain areas, for which milk production is their only source of income. 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”.