The Minister of Agriculture wants to spread the idea of regulating the dairy markets, a long-term job.
Analysis
It will be difficult. For several weeks, Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Agriculture, has been multiplying initiatives to convince his European partners to reorganize the milk market. He got an extraordinary council of ministers of agriculture on Monday. But nothing concrete should come to fruition before a new meeting on October 19.
L'Apli, objective ally of Le Maire. The Association of Independent Milk Producers justifies the slogan of suspension of strike by the advances obtained by Bruno Le Maire. The latter, by snatching support from Italy, obtained a qualified majority to obtain effective regulation of the dairy market. He “surfed” on the anti-liberal current expressed by the European milk strike movement. Will this be enough to thwart the liberal theses defended by the countries of the North, reinforced by the rise of the liberals in the German elections?
Regulation without integration. The movement did not obtain the questioning of the end of the quotas, in 2015. In the spirit of the minister and the processors, any “regulation of the dairy market” will pass by a private mechanism governed by the contractualization of the relations between the producers and processors. Cooperation has already formalized a framework. The milk producer movement, far beyond the strikers alone, refuses any form of integration. By drawing in particular on the experience of the pig and poultry sectors where farmers have become simple subcontractors. Producers are also demanding government arbitration. From each state? At the European level ? With what control?
Regulated supply management. The European milk board, at the initiative of the milk strike, calls for regulated supply and demand management, centered on the European consumer market. Is it technically possible? European consumption patterns for dairy products generate by-products (fat, milk powder, whey) that the Union market cannot absorb on its own. What regulatory role can Europe play in this context, without returning to forms of intervention or limiting supply?
A new French interprofession? The movement of French milk producers has brought about a new mode of representation outside the so-called representative unions. Can the French Interprofession, which governs the relations between producers and processors, continue to ignore the Association of independent milk producers, the minority unions that are the Organization of milk producers and the Confédération paysanne?
How to set the price. Negotiations from the ministers of agriculture may eventually emerge a new way of setting the basic price paid to the producer. Does the existence of a national recommendation, as it is practiced in France, not risk being called into question? It is a very beautiful departure from the rules of free competition, between States, and between companies. Knowing that the price paid to producers varies from country to country, some territories are under pressure. On the European single market, buyers know how to play it. This is even truer in times of economic slowdown.
Francois LEMARCHAND.
west france news source
