Milk price agreement: 54 cents per litre from January

A milk price of 54 cents per litre in January, 53 cents in February and 52 cents in March. This is the milk price agreement reached yesterday evening at the table around which the Ministry of Agriculture brought together the associations representing the entire dairy chain, from breeders to the processing industry. The agreement also includes an aid package for internationalisation and the development of a mechanism for not exceeding one's average production.

The meeting between the parties had become necessary after the spot price of milk plummeted from 68.3 cents per litre in July to 47.9 cents in November. What caused this free fall was the increase in milk production in other European countries, in particular Germany, France and the Netherlands. But what worried farmers most was the fear that, starting in January, the 10% of supply contracts that were cancelled might end up not being renewed precisely because of this surplus of milk on the market. The Italian farmers' association Cia has defined the evicted milk as a 'real time bomb' for the companies: in Lombardy alone, one of the most important Italian regions for milk production, up to 5 thousand quintals of product have been estimated to be no longer needed.

After the agreement reached late last night, however, the first reactions of the farmers were of satisfaction: 'The reaching of an agreement on the price,' Coldiretti wrote in a note, 'is fundamental to give prospects to the stables and achieve the objective of not leaving a single litre of milk on the ground, after the uncertainties of recent weeks that risked compromising the future of a pivotal sector of the Made in Italy table.

At the end of yesterday's meeting, the Ministry of Agriculture also specified that it will ensure its support for the supply chain 'through multiple measures, such as the call for indigent people, with dedicated communication campaigns, but above all by assisting companies in the incessant work of internationalisation and promotion of dairy products in Italy and abroad'.