Dairy Bill Seeing Limited Effects
SPAIN - Angry unions have announced that despite the government and several industry players signing 'sustainable dairy agreement', last week, little improvement has been seen in milk marketing and pricing in the supermarkets.
21 February 2013
1 minute read
This comes after the agriculture minister, Arias Canete, signed a deal with 14 dairies and 9 distribution companies last week as part of the legisaltive reaction to the dairy sector price war.
The agreement laid out behavioural rules aimed at stopping supermarkets from selling discounted milk at a loss and focused consumer perception initiatives to advertise milk as a nutritious food.
The Young Farmers Association has reacted failing of the sustainable dairy agreement saying: " the agreement is well intentioned, but without proper compliance control the legislation is meaningless."
The association added that labellling changes drawn up by the bill have not come to fruition in terms of displaying state of origin of the milk and advertising sourcing.
Price thresholds have also not been sufficiently monitored and the association has said that current pricing is not helpful to dairy farms on the brink of closure.
Further to farmer annoyance is the claim from the Andalusian Federation of Agricultural Companies that a free 6 litres of milk being offered for every €40 of milk purchased.
Michael Priestley
News Team - Editor
Mainly production and market stories on ruminants sector. Works closely with sustainability consultants at FAI Farms
