Dairy sector in Cantabria

27.5.2013

Question for written answer E-005881-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Ricardo Cortés Lastra (S&D)

According to the Alianza por la Unidad del Campo (Countryside Unity Alliance), the Spanish farming sector that suffered the most in 2012 was the dairy sector. Contracts were signed in Spain whereby farmers were paid 18 cents for one litre of milk. This was the first year in which one kilo of feed cost more than one litre of milk. Moreover, Spanish farmers claim that, on average, they are paid four cents less per litre of milk than farmers in France.

Faced with this problem, in Cantabria the initiative was taken to appoint a mediator between dairy farmers and the industry when concluding purchase and sale agreements in the dairy sector. However, dairy farmers have said that the mediator is useless because the industry is still dictating prices. A year ago, the People’s Party-led regional government rejected a strategic plan proposed by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and supported by the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) to revitalise the dairy sector and to take urgent measures to stop milk being sold for less than the cost of production.

As I have already asked the Commission twice in the last year, why has it not yet mobilised aid for the sector in view of the collapse in milk prices?

Is it planning to take other kinds of measures to rectify market imbalances in this sector?

OJ C 42 E, 13/02/2014