World Milk Day on 1st June: Open letter to the European Union by European producers of the EMB, ECVC, APLI and Conféderation paysanne, as well as by OXFAM, SOS FAIM and CFSI
Have a crisis prevention instrument in the dairy sector in place now - take the pressure off the EU market and thus off producers in the EU and in Africa
We - the European farmers of the European Milk
Board, ECVC, APLI and Conf??ation paysanne, together with the
organisations OXFAM (France and Belgi?Belgique), SOS FAIM and
the Comit?Fran?is pour la Solidarit?Internationale (CFSI) - advocate
for the implementation of an early warning system for the EU dairy
sector, and call on the European Commission to monitor the dairy
market closely and, when necessary, to relieve the pressure by
triggering a voluntary production reduction scheme. If a crisis
instrument is not activated, the dairy sector will very soon be
severely affected by an overproduction crisis due to a drop in demand
and rising milk volumes. This will have an extremely deleterious
impact on farmers in the EU and on their counterparts in African
countries, as well as on food security.
Significant
increases in costs, hand in hand with rising producer prices have
shaped the situation in the dairy sector in the last year. However,
this exceptional situation where the gap between prices and
production costs had practically closed in some countries is
now over. Higher milk volumes as well as shrinking demand due to
inflation have led to significant price decreases. The surplus on the
market has triggered a race to the bottom. This is a dangerous and
disruptive situation for farmers in the EU as well as for their
colleagues in Africa.
We call on the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission to:
Immediately collect and carefully analyse EU sectoral data on the drop in demand, production increases and on the development of producer prices, and to compile information on additional price indicators and production costs.
Based on this analysis, to activate a voluntary production reduction scheme - in case of a downward trend where prices fall below production costs, as this is an essential instrument in the EU's toolbox and it is enshrined in the Common Market Organisation (CMO).
If yet another crisis is not prevented, the number of farms
going out of business will break a new record. Our
production framework and thus our food security is already
notoriously unstable and the EU cannot afford further losses. For
African farmers, on the other hand, EU surpluses lead to dumping
exports and thus decimate local markets and threaten local
production.
Voluntary production reduction is a
tried and tested measure. However, it is only effective if activated
in time. The delicate situation of the dairy market and the impact of
recurring major crises in the sector are very well known.
To
deal with problematic situations and crises in the future, we need a
mechanism that automatically activates measures such as a voluntary
production reduction scheme in light of certain detrimental market
developments. Delays in taking action due to lengthy
political discussions and blockades result in producers having to pay
the price for this and food security being jeopardised, something
that could be avoided. This mechanism would make it possible to
rapidly reinstate market balance.
The undersigned
organisations stress the importance of preventing a new milk crisis
at all costs. Furthermore, attracting the younger generation into the
profession is crucial. Letting the market dictate its own law is
utterly inappropriate as it squeezes out the economically weaker
stakeholders, including those who have just taken over a farm. Every
crisis has a "restructuring" effect which leads to
producers being pushed out. Yet, that is the complete opposite of
what any milk policy is supposed to do. It must ensure farmers a
decent income in the long term.
Essential reforms are therefore needed, for which
the following aspects must be taken into account:
Put back on the table a real regulation of milk production volumes and prices.
Milk pricing must be decoupled from global markets and be initially based on 90% of the internal market values.
The Commission must implement measures to trigger Article 219 of the CMO in the event of a decrease in dairy farmers' income.
Dairy policies must promote human-scale farms that are, by nature, easier to pass on and more sustainable. We must distance ourselves from models belonging to companies or banks, in which farmers have lost any financial and decision-making autonomy.
We must absolutely change the practices and models and adapt them to climate and biodiversity imperatives, the depletion of resources and other issues. It is essential to support small-scale livestock farming and milk production, and to ensure a shift towards a large number of human-scale economically self-sufficient farms, which can be done through grazing. Faced with unforeseen events and the necessity to develop our food sovereignty, our duty is to establish robust farms in large numbers.
The Commission and every European
institution must send out positive signals by leading to a path where
dairy farmers are stakeholders in a society where solidarity is more
important than all-out competition.
We call on the
European Commission to inform us as soon as possible about the
measures it plans to take to counteract this situation and we remain
at your disposal for further discussions.
The signatories of the letter:
Kjartan
Poulsen Laurence
Marandola
President of EMB
National Speaker of
Conf??ation paysanne
Andoni
Garc? Arriola Pierre Maison
Henri
Lecloux
Coordination committee
Coordination committee Member of working group
of
ECVC
of ECVC
on dairy sector of ECVC
Eva
Smets Beno? De
Waegeneer Anne-Fran?ise
Taisne
Director
of OXFAM Secretary General
General Delegate
Belgi?Belgique
of SOS FAIM
of CFSI
Adrien Lef?re
Quentin Ghesqui?e
President
of APLI Advocacy and Campaign advisor
agriculture and food
security of OXFAM France