Omira dairy receives EU visit
(from left): Rudolf Köberle, Erich Härle, Norbert Lins, Ralph Wonnemann, Waldemar Westermayer, August Schuler
“We have to do something for the image of our dairy industry,” was the unanimous opinion of Norbert Lins, member of the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament, Waldemar Westermayer, CDU party member of the Bundestag, Rudolf Köberle, CDU party member of parliament, and August Schuler, CDU group chairman, when they visited the Omira dairy in Germany recently.
At the dairy they discussed the dairies situation with Omira CEO Ralph Wonnemann and supervisory board chairman Erich Härle. In particular, two main topics were the current one-sided German media coverage of the milk and milk production, and the financial burden of farmers due to the EU quota superlevy and the new, more stringent requirements on the storage and spreading of manure.
All men agree that consumers are troubled by scandalous media reports and solutions must be found to counter this uncertainty. Increased awareness training will be necessary to inform the public about current high-quality standards and measures in the dairy farming and the sincere work of most dairy farmers.
“We need to show how agriculture works. We should invite consumers to the farms and open the stable doors to them,” Lins says.
“The impact of the superlevy on the farms is already foreseeable. It is clear that it will hit some farms hard and they are likely to get liquidity problems,” Härle adds.
