Second milk summit in Germany

A year after the first milk summit in Germany, the federal minister of agriculture Christian Schmidt (pictured) invited the trade for a second milk summit. Representatives of DMK, Hochwald, Arla and representatives of food retailers (BVLH), along with representatives of the Federal Cartel Office, participated in the meeting.

In addition to a discussion about the factual report published by the Federal Cartel Office in March, the minister presented his milk report. While in the first part of the report a detailed inventory and evaluation of current statistics was carried out, the second part of the report identified specific courses of action for the milk industry. This includes establishment of a branch of the trade association, designing supply relationships, improving value added products, dealing with price volatilities and designing a safety net.

The agricultural ministry (BMEL) sees the establishment of a recognised industry association as an opportunity to achieve close and effective cooperation in the milk value chain. The ‘Branchedialog Milch’ will also serve as a platform in the future to promote cross dialogue in the industry. The founding of the “Interessengemeinschaft Genossenschaftsliche Milcherszeugung” – IG-Milch (Cooperative Milk Production) by some of the big dairies in the beginning of the year was welcomed by BMEL. Nevertheless, it is calling for further development of a new dairy industry association.

The modernisation of delivery can make an important contribution to the stabilisation of the dairy market, according to the summit. The design of the contracts between milk producers and dairies should be put to the test, the BMEL finds. The legal form and organisation of cooperative dairy processing should in principle be preserved, while the modernisation of delivery conditions is the task of the economy. In Brussels, the BMEL will work towards the further development of Article 148 of the CMO.

The crisis has shown that the volatility of the milk payment price will weaken, so the higher the value added to dairy products, the better.

The milk sector also needs to further develop its precautionary measures to deal with price volatility, the report says. The support of the economy in the procurement of up-to-date price information for further development of a commodity futures exchange will be a field of action of the BMEL. This is of high relevance for the development of a raw milk contract, which is being pursued by the EEX Commodity futures exchange.

Intervention and private storage of butter and skimmed-milk powder, as well as cheeses, will also be put to the test as part of the 2020 CAP decisions. Changes will have to be carefully examined within the framework of an overall concept for dairy market policy. An increase in intervention prices is critical, the ministry notes.

 

Photo caption: Source: BMEL/photothek.net/Michael Gottschalk

Related content

Leave a reply

Dairy Industries International