Farmers angry over milk prices stage live protest

FARMERS brought a Friesian cow to the steps of the European Commission offices in Dublin yesterday to highlight their anger at the prices they are being paid for milk supplies.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association said its members also occupied the offices for two hours and handed in a letter outlining how dairy farmers are producing milk below the cost of production.

A spokesperson for the European Commission Representation in Ireland said it had accepted the letter and undertook to forward it to the Brussels office of Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, who was aware of the difficulties in the sector.

Association president Jackie Cahill warned that EU dairy policy was inflicting long-term structural damage on Ireland’s dairy industry and the wider agri-food sector, which is vital in any co-ordinated attempt to rebuild the exporting sector.

Mr Cahill said the European Commission and the Council of Agricultural Ministers, who meet on this matter next Monday in Brussels, must be again clearly told the abolition of any form of supply-management system will mean world prices for EU farmers.

“We cannot produce milk at world prices regardless of how efficient we are. This is the reality and the commission’s failure to grasp this inescapable fact is both depressing and alarming,” he said.

Mr Cahill said the EU must continue with supply-management, which simply means that production is managed to levels of demand for milk and dairy products. This has been the system for more than 25 years.

He said the commission is responsible for the chaos in the sector and the huge losses being suffered by dairy farmers. Mr Cahill said immediate action is required on the operation of the EU intervention system, export refunds and other measures that could provide a solid floor for milk prices so that normal market prices can be restored as soon as possible.