Dairy farmers fear lower prices

Dairy Farmers Fear Price Skimming for 2021 (Illustration) -

As every year, supermarkets and suppliers will begin commercial negotiations which will be held until February and will establish the prices of products put on the shelves in 2021. A period of stress for dairy farmers who fear that the revaluations obtained last year are erased that milk prices are consequently revised downwards.

"We are waiting very firmly for the negotiations," warned Marie-Thérèse Bonneau, vice-president of the National Federation of Milk Producers (FNPL), a specialized association of the FNSEA, at a press conference.

"If it is necessary to deconfin the manure spreaders to be heard, we will do it", for his part threatened the general secretary of the union, Daniel Perrin by targeting the cooperatives which collect more than half of the milk in France?

According to him, they have not played the game of the Food Law, passed two years ago and requiring that prices take into account production costs.

The standard price of milk falling in 2020

The Food Law aimed in particular to get out of a domino effect: the price war between distribution players pushes them to demand ever lower prices from their suppliers in the agri-food industry, who themselves buy in turn. the cheapest possible agricultural raw material.

There were two flagship provisions put in place at the beginning of 2019 for a two-year experiment: the supervision of promotions and the raising of the resale at loss threshold (SRP), requiring that a food product be resold at least 10% more expensive than the price at which it was purchased.

Despite this, manufacturers would still put pressure on prices.

According to the monthly survey by the organization FranceAgriMer, the standard price for conventional cow's milk in July 2020 was 326 euros per thousand liters, or 14 euros less than a year earlier.

Cooperatives in the sights

The Cniel, the dairy interprofession which brings together producers, processors and distributors, estimated that breeders should be able to pay the equivalent of two monthly minimums to live properly from their profession.

The FNPL issued an “ultimatum” to the cooperatives on October 15, on the condition that they show that they comply with the legislation.

A "false trial", for Pascal Lebrun, secretary general of Coop de France trades milk, which brings together dairy cooperatives.

He concedes that the cooperatives have so far had "more difficulty" in obtaining revaluations, due to their significant involvement in the supply of products sold under their own brand by mass distribution (MDD) "which have benefited less from the increases. than national brands ”.

He promises the cooperatives will return to the fight during negotiations.

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