Sardinia: shepherds ready to take action over milk prices and price rises

Back on the streets: the protest by Sardinian shepherds is back on. Seven years on from the ‘milk war’, the movement is reigniting. At the heart of the issue are milk prices and the ‘high costs’ of energy and feed. To rally the farming community, who have denounced ‘a situation even worse than in 2019’, a meeting in Tramatza attended by 600 people, including farmers, mayors and representatives from the dairy sector, to discuss the price of sheep’s milk and animal diseases.

“The situation today is worse than it was in 2019,” reiterated Gianuario Falchi, spokesperson for the shepherds alongside Fabio Pisu, Mario Carai and Nenneddu Sanna, “Whereas a quintal of feed used to cost 25–30 euros, today it’s 55 euros; fertiliser used to be 35 euros and now costs 120; and agricultural diesel used to be 50 centesimi per litre and is now 1.70. We urgently need to know whether to plan for the 2026–2027 milk marketing year.”

The meeting was also attended by several mayors and dairy industry representatives, who listened to the farmers’ arguments and reported on the new strategy to manage the market by withdrawing 3,000 tonnes of Pecorino Romano in order to maintain a balance between the value of the PDO cheese and the producers’ income.

The meeting centred on a discussion of the sector’s performance and market outlook, based on data on production, sales, stock levels, prices and costs. In recent months, the Region has involved agricultural organisations and cooperatives in defining measures to support the sector. These include the financial instruments approved by the Regional Executive with the support of the regional finance company Sfirs, ranging from mini-bonds to destocking measures, which will be outlined at the meeting along with the relevant operational procedures. In addition, there is the €25 million fund allocated by the Regional Council to help curb the rise in production costs, with particular attention to high fuel prices. Meanwhile, the Sardinian Regional Government’s Department of Agriculture has convened a round-table meeting for the sheep’s milk and dairy supply chain on Tuesday 13 October in Oristano.

The farmers have therefore issued an appeal, stating that ‘the 2019 protests over the price of milk have taught those responsible for finding solutions – starting with politicians – absolutely nothing’. They have also announced a new demonstration in Cagliari to be held by October.