No room for further increase in milk purchase price, emphasized the director of the Economic Interest Association Croatiastočar, Branko Bobetić, at today’s press conference.
Namely, part of the milk producers recently requested an increase in the protective purchase price from the current 2.40 kuna per liter to 3.00 kuna per liter, and if the price does not increase, they threaten to stop supplying milk. The additional increase in the purchase price of milk, which is continuously rising, is unsustainable from the perspective of the competitiveness of the domestic dairy industry given the current decline in the consumption of milk, dairy products, and cheeses, said Bobetić. He reminds that the purchase prices of milk in Croatia are formed on a market basis (monthly, and as a quarterly average of purchase prices in EU countries), that they recorded a growth trend during 2010, in November and December they are 20 percent higher than in the same period last year, and the purchase prices of milk in Croatia are five percent higher compared to European prices. It is already certain that the price will rise in the first six months of next year and that it will be at least ten percent higher compared to the first half of this year, said Bobetić, noting that Croatia is lacking 50 million liters of milk this year.
He also emphasizes that the consumption of milk and dairy products in the first nine months of this year has fallen by five percent and that, for the first time in several years, a decline in the export of drinking milk and dairy products has been recorded. At the same time, the import of ferments and cheeses is rising, and in the period from July to October, cheese imports increased by 42 percent. Bobetić therefore emphasizes that there is no room for further increase in the purchase price of milk and reiterates that the price alone will not stabilize the sector but that a series of incentive measures must be introduced to increase milk production in Croatia. He emphasizes the need to undertake a series of measures for the growth of milk production to EU standards, ensuring favorable credit lines, subsidizing the purchase of heifers, consolidating agricultural land, and legalizing agricultural facilities with minimal costs and administration, and training farms to use pre-accession and post-accession funds. When asked what will be done if producers stop supplying milk if their request for a price increase is not met, Bobetić said that dairies will be forced to import milk because they cannot allow their plants to stop operating. Alen Fontana from Dukat emphasized that ‘dairy leaders’ always call for discussions regarding the purchase price, and not about other problems, for example, how to be competitive, how to recover the sector. Representatives of milk producers who gathered in front of the building where the press conference was held did not want to make statements, noting that they would do so after today’s meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture. (H)
