EU agriculture ministers have announced €500 million in aid, following the protests of thousands of farmers on the streets of Brussels. The fireworks, horns and tractors should have drawn the attention of EU agriculture ministers who were due to meet over food prices crises on Monday. Primarily Belgian, French and German farmers were demonstrating against excessive milk quotas and prices below the cost of production. According to foreign media, prices for beef, pork and milk have been pushed down by a combination of factors, including changing dietary habits, slowing Chinese demand and a Russian embargo on Western products in response to sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.
At the meeting, the Slovak Agriculture Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek surprisingly proposed the temporary re-introduction of milk quotas. "Some countries unbelievably accelerated their production. The overproduction has caused huge abundance of milk. Slovakia therefore calls for some protection mechanism". He refuses the €500 million budget proposed by the EU. "Any kind of inflow of finances to the farmer's section means a following drop in state-purchasing prices", said Ľubomír Jahnátek on Monday in Brussels.
Slovak farmers also disagree with the EU policy. About 500 of them held their protest in the centre of Bratislava. They call for a regulated market. The purchasing price has dropped in Slovakia by almost €0.10 per kilogram of milk, with the official statistics being held in this unit. Production costs are around €0.40. The customers, on the other hand, appreciate the drop in dairy product prices. While the cost of 1 litre of milk in 2014 reached €0.83 in Slovakia, it dropped to €0.77 in 2015. The milk producers are accusing traders of taking advantage of the crisis. They are asking the EU set a minimum price for milk and to restrict retailers from misusing their dominance on the market.
"The final price of dairy products on the market is only influenced by retailers, not processors", says President Stanislav Voskar. According to him, apart from the falling purchasing prices of raw milk in Slovakia and the entire EU, the lower levels of proteins and fat in milk represent another adversity for farmers' economic results. The severe heat and drought this summer in Slovakia has resulted in a 10-percent reduction of fat and proteins in milk. "If only these two elements are compared, we have 10 percent less fat and almost 10 percent less protein in this year's milk. This in turn affects the purchasing price of milk", said Voskar. According to Slovak Dairy Association, about 200 milk producers and processors had to cease their production over the past 5 years.
