ICMSA urges European Commission to speed up dairy support
Agriculture ministers have been asked to table proposals at the Farm Council meeting on March 14. The ICMSA is calling for an intervention price of 28cpl, and for Ireland to support France’s suggestion of an export credit mechanism.
“Having backed down from any confrontation with the corporate food retailers over margin-hogging, the Commission was duty-bound to drastically ramp-up the measures that supported milk prices,” said ICMSA president John Comer.
“I don’t understand why member states are being asked to consider ‘new’ or ‘innovative’ measures as if we have the luxury of time. We don’t have that luxury and what we need is the introduction of a realistic, cost-covering, intervention price that then allows us to work on a range of medium-term options. We don’t need a brainstorming session on March 14, we need action that immediately puts a floor under the price.”
The dairy group leader also called upon the Commission to signal to dairy farmers that it understands that it has failed to address the dominance allowed to corporate retailers in setting margins in the supply-chain.
