Farmers and co-ops demand EU action to prevent new dairy crisis

ACTION to prevent a new EU dairy crisis from emerging is being sought by Copa-Cogeca, the umbrella body for farmers and agri co-ops.

It warned that the EU market is still fragile and the market price does not always cover farmers’ production cost

Copa president Padraig Walshe told the European Parliament Agriculture Committee that producers suffered hugely during the deep EU-wide dairy crisis at the end of 2008, losing close to €10 billion in turnover in 2009. “The EU market is still... dependent on world market demand which could change at any moment. A strong EU policy solution is consequently needed to prevent another crisis from occurring,” he said.