Posted on 05/30/2016 8:55:16 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Many dairy farmers work long hours though their pay is dropping and a growing number of farms are going bankrupt. They have a low opinion of subsidies. […]
Michael Greshake is struggling with low market prices for the dairy products put out by his farm in Velbert, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His main buyer, a Dutch company, has contractually agreed to buy a set amount of milk. However, Greshake’s farm assumes the risk for overproduction. If contracted farms such as Greshake’s suddenly produce a surplus — and demand fails to grow — purchase prices sink.
That is why Greshake does not think much of subsidies. “They distort the market,” the 52-year-old said. He was referring to the bonuses the EU pays per hectare (2.5 acres) of agricultural land, the milk quota that was abolished in 2015 and investment aid. “Without them, many fellow farmers would not be on the verge of bankruptcy today,” Gershake said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Milking the system.
Milk quota abolished. Here in USA we turn excess into cheese
Isn’t part of this issue the fact that there was a market to sell German milk into Russia until the embargo episode started up? They were already talking about this in August of 2015, and how the embargo was going to have serious long-term consequences on the German agricultural market.
Government fiddling with the market, with unintended results.
So do they.
European cheese prices have collapsed.
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