GERMANY – Supermarket chain Aldi appears to have deflected the anger of Germany’s dairy farmers, who have been demonstrating against the discounter’s use of milk and milk products as loss leaders.

Demonstrations have been held at the headquarters of major discounters Aldi, Lidl and Tengelmann-Plus, the main protagonists in a long-running price war. Farmers hold these companies in particular responsible for the fall of their milk prices to an average of 27 euro cents a litre.

Aldi shifted the blame away from itself by inviting demonstration leaders into its headquarters and explaining that the processors were to blame.

Farmers that met with Aldi said the company was in principle prepared to pay two or three extra euro cents a litre for their milk, but that processors were to blame because they were continuously underbidding each other.

Farmers are now considering action against the processors.