Milk gloom.

摘要

The recent collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain has thrown the problems facing the UK dairy sector into sharp relief. But the Dairy sector's woes are not confined to the UK. Since May, dairy farmers have taken to the streets in Brussels-often with their cows-to complain about low prices. In June, protesting dairy farmers brought their tractors to lobby EU heads of state. Following the failure of the September Farm Council to come to any conclusion about how to prop up the dairy sector, there was talk of talk of a new wave of demonstrations and even strikes by EU dairy farmers as they pursue their demands for, amongst other measures, a cut in milk quotas. In the UK, dairy farmers have complained about the fall in farm gate prices that has characterised the first half of 2009, in contrast to the sharp improvements that took place in 2007-2008. Milk buyers say that falling commodity prices are the root of their imposition of lower prices, Nevertheless, dairy farmers' finances improved significantly in 2007-2008 and seem set for a further improvement in 2008-2009. In this paper, the author evaluates and presents the facts behind the debate.