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Dairy farmers unhappy with import of raw milk - September 29th, 2009
Head of the Federation of Cattle Breeders of Romania recently said that 1,200 farmers who are breeding cows have received notifications from big milk processors, saying that their production is no longer accepted, because the processors are using milk from import. The cow breeders said that the milk imported by the big processors is not of the best quality, because its area of origin is not known and it is not subject to veterinary checks.
Milk producers are asking the observance of the legal norms in the trade between EU member countries. Romanian farmers are afraid they will go bankrupt if the milk production is no longer purchased by processors; they said the imported milk is much cheaper.
Cow breeders are asking the state to take action, to make veterinary checks on the milk entering Romania, tests that are currently being done by processors only. Subsidies have also been considered to support farmers. Otherwise, the over 1,200,000 dairy farmers will go bankrupt, and some three million people will suffer.
At the same time, according to the Association of Milk Processors - APRIL, once Romania entered the EU the free movement of goods between the member states has become one of the benefits got by Romania. "As of January 1, 2007, the Romanian products have free access on the EU market, to the same extent to which European goods have free access on the local market, all of this in the context of increased competition, with the observance of the legal norms in the field. Trade in raw materials are made with the observance of all the legal norms valid in the EU, including the ones regarding the administration of national milk quotas and the sanitary-veterinary requirements for the quality of milk," said APRIL following protests by milk producers.
APRIL brings together some 45 dairy companies. The processing activity is generally based on the milk supplied by local farmers, while the imports of raw materials (raw milk) are aimed at completing the processing needs, for a continuous flow of dairy products on the market.
Source: Agerpres
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