Vitré (France) (AFP)
Lactalis, which collects a quarter of French milk, plans to pay more milk producers in 2021 given the rise in world prices, its president, Emmanuel Besnier, said on Tuesday.
"We are quite confident on a rise in the price of milk in 2021", declared at a press conference Mr. Besnier, whose group, based in Laval, claims to be the world's leading dairy group.
"For 2021, normally, the price of milk in France should be significantly higher, it will be driven by the international markets" of raw materials such as butter and milk powder, returned to "pre-Covid levels", he added.
Last year, "I was quite pessimistic" on the price of milk in view of the plunge in these same prices at the start of the health crisis, he stressed.
He estimated, at the beginning of June 2020, that the price paid to breeders was moving towards "an average decrease" over the whole of the year, drawing the anger of producers.
"Revolting !!!"
Guillaume Canet also reacted on Instagram, in a message approved thousands of times.
The actor had played a breeder plunged into hell from over-indebtedness to suicide, in the film "In the name of the earth".
# photo1
Finally, prices rose, milk consumption was maintained and Lactalis paid for cow's milk 369 euros per thousand liters on average in 2020 (all qualities combined, organic milk included), against 370 euros in 2019.
Lactalis has not communicated a quantified estimate for 2021.
Compared to the other major French milk manufacturers - Sodiaal, Agrial and Savencia - "we are the company that best values milk in France", Mr. Besnier said on Tuesday.
"We are the best performers and this year we managed to stabilize our prices," he insisted.
The price of milk depends on world prices, but also on negotiations between the industrialist and the mass distribution on the price of the products that will be put on the shelves.
In this area, the discussions were "difficult" and "will not necessarily justify" an additional revaluation of the price of milk, reported Mr. Besnier.
© 2021 AFP