Milk producers alarm: “The stables are closed”

Milk producers risk “collapse”, the situation is really “serious, unsustainable” for the sector, and is partly due to the increase in raw materials but above all to the too low remuneration, under 40 cents, paid by the dairy industries dairy. The alarm was raised by Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, speaking with Adnkronos. “It is true that the increase due to the rise in the cost of raw material fluctuates between 4 and 5 cents per liter but in addition to this there are a series of industries that in an unjustified and inexplicable way – remarked Prandini – are paying less for milk. than they paid in 2020. Even with a price that fluctuates around 36 cents “. It is clear that the agricultural entrepreneur is “at a net loss” and therefore or “we are able to stem all this and create the conditions for which, in a short time, already in October, it is possible to increase the remuneration and the prerequisite is created to continue like this in 2022 or the risk is that many stables will go into difficulty “and extreme ratio” could close “. Prandini, however, looks with optimism at the convening of the table on September 30 by the Minister of Agricultural Policies Stefano Patuanelli, urged by the president of Coldiretti himself to the minister in recent days. “At this moment, I think there is no need for a head-on collision between the various players in the supply chain, but a sense of responsibility is needed, as never before”, underlines the president of Coldiretti. “You need awareness in making an effort, looking at a future perspective to make longer agreements, given that today in Italy, they usually take 3 months to 3 months because we try to speculate on the market trend but in this way we build little. .. “. Such low milk prices are found almost everywhere, from north to south but the problem is felt above all in the north as 60-70% of production is in the north (50% only in Lombardy). The only exception on the most profitable milk prices concerns those that are conferred for the transformation of PDO cheeses such as Grana Padano, around 45 cents per liter, and Parmigiano Reggiano 75 cents, but also here if you look at other PDOs such as Gorgonzola or Provolone, “the remuneration is not satisfactory compared to the product offered for sale” Prandini emphasizes. As for the costs of feed, “the increase mainly concerns corn and soybeans which have a greater impact but also for haymaking this year, with the trend drought climate and with the most suitable areas for production that produced less than last year, “critical issues” are expected. Prandini, however, hopes that the regional tables on milk that are opening in these days in Puglia and Lombardy can be of the “facilitators of the national table” of 30 September.