A faire Milch dies
After 14 years of struggling to be an alternative to the normal interaction between dairies and farmers, the project ‘A faire Milch’ (A fair milk), which was launched in July 2006 by the Austrian organisation IG-Milch, has been laid to rest, which has left the men and women behind the project bitter.
After the first big spread of ‘A faire Milch’ in Austria, this project also was launched in six other EU countries. The political environment was decisive in determining whether the “fair milk” could spread.
In Austria, the Seifried dairy and Pinzgau-Milch dairy became project partners for many years in filling the ‘fair’ milk and the most important partners in the food trade were the SPAR chain as well as the Pfeiffer Group and the Kastner Group. But developments in the Austrian milk sector and in the trade have in later years given the ‘A faire Milch’ project a steadily tougher time.
“While many campaigns, tastings and events were carried out with great commitment and joy by farmers at the beginning, it was subsequently practically impossible to continue these marketing activities. Open and hidden threats from the dairies were effective”, claimed farmer Ernst Halbmayr, who was not only one of the initiators of ‘A faire Milch, but also a project manager from the beginning.
“Critics were threatened with exclusion from the cooperative. At the same time, bulk and penalty fees were introduced and direct marketing was systematically prevented. There were also contract changes in the milk supply contracts that contradict any modern legal system. For example, it is contractually prohibited to talk publicly about the terms of the contract. We have therefore decided to discontinue the ‘A faire Milch’ project”, added the chairman of IG-Milch, Ewald Grünzweil.
As A faire Milch’ – the flagship of IG-Milch – has now sunk, the organisation will use all the energy on trying to put pressure on the political and legal system in Austria in order to change the contract relationship between farmers and dairies.
IG-Milch will not only try to make minister for Sustainability and Tourism, Elisabeth Köstinger, its ally, but the organisation calls on the Austrian cartel court and the federal competition authority to initiate an in-depth investigation into ‘the unsustainable conditions’ in the dairy industry and to bring about a legal clarification of ‘the misuse of market power’.
