Good to see dairy sector leaders singing from the same hymn sheet - not!
This week saw the second meeting of the EU Commission's new High Level Dairy Group, set up in the wake of the recent milk strikes in Europe and charged with the job of reducing market volatility and improving transparency.
In particular, the group has been asked to consider things like contractual relations between suppliers and buyers, market support instruments and a possible futures market for dairy products.
A statement from NFU dairy board chairman, Gwyn Jones, after the HLG meeting said the key to resolving some of the challenges facing milk producers was better contracts.
The HLG offered a "unique opportunity" to develop a code of practice for milk contracts, he said, "potentially providing a basic legal framework to protect the interests of producers"...
But his comments were in contrast to Irish Farmers' Association leader, Padraig Walshe, who told the HLG that what was needed was stronger dairy co-ops and the full use of intervention purchasing, export refunds and other market management tools to bolster farm incomes.
"The HLG must not be tempted to recommend the replacement of solid, well-funded dairy market management with contractual arrangements between farmers and purchasers," he said. Quite a contrast!
International farmers' federation Via Campesina also gave the NFU's contracts initiative the thumbs down. It feared the approach would only favour large producers, not small ones. Instead it called for the retention of quotas to restrict supplies.
The European Milk Board, which orchestrated most of the milk strikes, endorsed this view, telling the HLG that "focussing on contractual relations is a fine choice of words, but no real improvements can be brought about by such contracts".
Meanwhile, the European Dairy Association, representing processors, said the best way forward was through adding value to dairy products, while providing an intervention safety net. But any tinkering with contracts should be entirely voluntary, and not subject to legislation.
Quite where this is all leading remains to be seen, though somewhat unkindly, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association has described the new body as "a talking shop within a talking shop".
Clearly, the HLG has a lot of evidence to take and many different views to consider before it publishes its report next June. By then it is more than likely that the immediate crisis hitting dairy farmers will be over, as recent improvements in global dairy markets finally filter though to their milk cheques.
But the HLG still has an important job to do. Volatility in the dairy sector is here to stay. And with milk quotas due to be removed in five years' time and EU budgets likely to be cut, policymakers are going to have to come up with something that provides a more stable environment for dairy farmers of the future.
* For more blog postings click here. For regular blog alerts click here. And why not leave a comment below on what you believe the HLG should do.
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The High Level Group has been created as a result of political pressure from the French, who want to solve the problems created by their milk pricing system by imposing it on the rest of the EU. So the best civil servants in each member state have all been hauled in to try and deliver a political fudge that will push milk pricing back off their desks.
The HLG cannot deliver on the French aspirations without crippling the principles of a free market which is what the Commission, the UK Government, and virtually all the farmers’ organisations in this country and elsewhere all want.
The President of COPA Padraig Walshe made it clear in his presentation to the HLG last week that he does not see contracts as the solution to the issues being discussed. Dairy UK, which was in the meeting as part of the European Dairy Association delegation, gave the same message. The NFU must reflect on this view, taking account also of the indifference shown by UK dairy farmers and disclosed to a recent Select Committee.
If prices continue to rise, the result of the HLG may turn out to be a political irrelevance. That was probably the calculation of Mariann Fischer Boel in giving it nine months to work out recommendations.
Read more of Jim Begg’s blog at www.dairyUK.org
I agree with much of that Jim, especially the bit about the High Level Group being a stalling tactic to appease certain groups of EU dairy farmers until such time as Mariann Fischer Boel is safely back in Denmark, doing whatever it is that retired EU commissioners do.
I also agree that the current crisis in the dairy sector will be over by the time the HLG publishes its recommendations next June. Having said that, it's still good news the HLG has been established to look at ways in which the industry can deal with volatility in the years ahead. And, whatever your views on milk contracts (and I'm well aware of yours Jim!) I believe the HLG has a lot to learn about supply chain relations from all that has gone on in the UK over the past few years.
And one other thing, I couldn't help but notice the plug for your own blog at the end of your comment. Normally I don't tolerate such advertising, but your blog is so entertaining I'm happy to let it pass!