20 November 2012

2 minute read

At a seminar organized by COPA-Cogeca, Roman Santalla, Livestock Secretary of UPA acknowledged "progress" but cautioned, COPA-Cogeca, that dairy farmers are "on the brink" and still "a long way to go."

Mr Santalla acknowledged that the milk package is working to progress in areas such as production volumes in contracts, prices and delivery times and the ability to form producer organizations he said however that the package is not comprehensive enough.

"Much remains to be done in order to achieve true capacity producers trading against other links and resolve the problem of prices facing the producer."

Other problems Mr Santalla highlighted were the absence of rebalancing measures in European legislation, the lack of genuine use by industry indices referencing the price of milk and the impossibility of transferring production costs to the production chain.

UPA livestock representative emphasized the need of having a intermediary in order to put themselves on the same level with other countries like France or Italy..

The UPA has claimed that a change in competition rules hinders any attempt to balance the bargaining power of producers. They have also criticized the malpractice of the industry, saying that milk prices are going to ruin Spanish farmers.

Roman Santalla also met with representatives of the European Commission, denouncing the poor treatment received by the livestock sector in the new CAP reform. The Commission acknowledged before Santalla lack of specific measures in the livestock sector and said:

"No Member State in the Council meetings has presented any problems, so it is now the Member states' concern as the Commission has little power to amend the proposal."

TheCattleSite News Desk