The industry body said that despite a ‘slight’ upward trend in pricing, any increases are failing to offset the ‘extreme rise’ in costs farmers are facing. The price of inputs like fertilisers, feed and energy have all spiked in recent months.
In Germany, EMB said the ‘main dairies’ in North Rhine-Westphalia paid dairy farmers 44 cents per kilogramme of milk in February. This was an increase in the farmgate milk price, the farmers’ association noted, but stressed it was ‘far from enough’ to make up for the average increase faced by dairy farmers of 10 cents, as calculated by the Chamber for Agriculture of North Rhine-Westphalia. This places total production costs at 53 cents/kg milk. And prices continue to rise, EMB stressed. For example, the price for the protein feedstuff rapeseed meal has already surpassed 500 euros per tonne in April.
In Portugal, EMB said year-on-year price increases of 62% for diesel, 77% for maize and 140% for nitrogen fertilisers have been reported for April 2022. In France, energy costs have increased by about 30% and fertiliser costs have increased by over 80% within the course of a year.
The situation is already having an impact on the European dairy herd, EMB revealed. Incoming reports from countries like Italy and the Netherlands state that due to the explosion in feed prices, an increasing number of producers are forced to send their dairy cows to slaughter.
“This incredibly tense situation is currently forcing many farmers out of milk production and is eroding farming structures in the EU down to dangerous levels,” warned EMB President Sieta van Keimpema.
‘It will be impossible to recover from this’
The Executive Committee of the EMB said it ‘demands’ an adjustment in the price paid to farmers to compensate for the increasing cost of production.
According to EMB Executive Committee member Elmar Hannen, immediate action must be taken. “Further, massive losses in number of farmers is the worst thing that can happen to us in Europe. It will be impossible to recover from this. This rapid withering down of the sector will undoubtedly lead to difficulties in food production in Europe.”
Hannen goes on to say that an agricultural sector without ‘viable’ small scale farms will be ‘highly industrialised’, meaning it is in ‘no position’ to address the need to transition towards less environmentally damaging production methods.
Act now for stable and sustainable milk production, EMB urges
The EMB is calling on decisionmakers to take a number of steps to improve the economic outlook for European dairy farmers, thereby supporting milk production that is more stable and sustainable in the future. The EMB’s five point plan calls for:
