Crisis threatens Romania milk market

Marţi, 11 martie 2008, 11:35 English | Top News

Cattle owners in Romania have announced they would protest at the headquarters of the most important milk processing factories on March 11, as they are highly unsatisfied with the milk acquisition prices offered to them. However, this is just one of the problems that pressure peasants, which include draught, subsidies and quality standards. As possible solutions, the Agriculture Ministry argues that cattle owners need to invest more in technology.

Unions of cattle growers announced that they would organize a protest against the factories which offer an incredibly low price that fails to cover production costs, the vice-resident of the cattle grower's association, Gheorgeh Liciu has told HotNews.ro.

Friesland Foods Romania, one of the factories involved, argued that the factory pays a price complying to European Union norms and that they even increased the price by 30% as compared to last year.

However, there are many milk producers who fail to comply with the imposed quality standards due to a lack of investments in the production technology. Thus, the national quota allocated by the EU will not be met for this year.

Liciu argues that on the one hand, the extended draught and the lack of subsidies had a direct effect upon the production possibilities Romania has available for this upcoming year. At his turn, Agriculture minister Dacian Ciolos says that EU subsidies are directed towards those producing in order to sell.