EU to hold emergency talks over crash in milk price
AN EMERGENCY meeting of European agriculture ministers has been set for next month to discuss the catastrophic fall in the price of milk and dairy products as the effect of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s import ban worsened.
Farmers have warned they face financial ruin after the prices they are paid fell by as much as 25 per cent over the past year. The situation reached crisis point last week as British farmers descended on supermarkets, clearing shelves and demanding better prices for their products.
Farmers in France and Belgium have also protested by blocking border crossings and roads, as well as supermarket entrances.
While a supermarket price war and falls in dairy exports to China have exacerbated the price falls, the root cause of the decline in the milk price has been laid at Putin’s door.
His ban from last August on milk and dairy imports – in response to sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea – has been followed by a steady price slide despite EU efforts to prop them up.
Britain’s food exports to Russia were relatively small, accounting for only £97million – less than 1 per cent of the UK’s £12.4billion global exports. That sum includes only £5.8million of cheese.
But at EU level, dairy exports to Russia are far more significant. Before the ban – which also includes beef, lamb, pork, vegetables and fish – the EU delivered 34 per cent of its cheese exports to Russia and 24 per cent of butter exports. In value terms, the EU accounted for more than 80 per cent of Russia’s dairy imports.
‘As much as the supermarkets make popular villains, the current crisis is not one of their causing,’ said Neil Saunders, managing director at retail consultancy Conlumino.
Farm gate milk prices in the UK fell 25 per cent to 23.7 pence per litre in the year to June – their lowest since May 2010, when they were strained amid the economic downturn.
Morrisons, Aldi and Asda have sought to appease farmers by guaranteeing higher prices for milk.