The move came after release of the EU Commission report on the EU milk package.
Chairman of the Copa and Cogeca Working Party on Milk and Dairy Products, Thierry Roquefeuil, said “We are pleased to see the milk package being implemented across the EU. Dairy farmers have suffered a lot recently and the package helps to strengthen their position. Contracts under the package help to reduce the impact of market volatility and give producers some predictability”.
“The market situation is improving now, mainly for dairy commodity prices but we are disappointed by the European Commissions’ latest move to already start putting skimmed milk powder (SMP) stocks back onto the EU market as it is too early”, he added.
“We believe that the package must be extended beyond 2020 to help farmers get a better return for their produce. Through its provisions on producer organisations (POs), the package helps to improve farmers positioning especially in countries where there is a lack of dairy cooperatives and where their market share is not high. Cooperatives also help producers to get a better price for their produce. We consequently encourage the sharing of information on good practices in creating POs, including cooperatives, and believe that it is vital to better exploit the financing opportunities that are available for this under EU rural development policy. We also believe that cooperatives need to be able to grow in scale and size, in order to be more effective”, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen stressed.
“The dairy package is not however sufficient to meet all the challenges. It needs to be complemented by tools to help protect farmers’ incomes against risks like fixed price contracts, futures markets. A more efficient safety net is also essential. Risks on the external market could also be covered via export credit insurance”, Mr Roquefeuil concluded
