The European Parliament’s Agricultural Committee has voted in favour of amendments to the draft European Union proposal on milk contracts, which aims to promote the position of the dairy farmer in the supply chain and increases transparency, DairyCo reports.
Under the new law, every raw milk delivery from a farmer to a processor would be covered by a written contract. This contract would be in place before delivery and include a fixed milk price for at least a year. Other proprosals include farmers being able to negotiate prices via producer organisations, but these will have limits placed on them to keep the market competitive. Production prices and volumes should be declared as well. Three-way talks with the Commission and the Council are now planned before the plenary vote at the end of 2011.