The current situation of milk producers all over Europe could have been taken from a horror movie, says the European Milk Board.
"Disastrous price reporting month on month; the gap between production costs and farm-gate price continues to widen and families on dairy farms live in fear of this very real threat to their existence," the Board explained.
As the figures from April for milk production in Germany show, an average price of 25.78 cents does not cover two-thirds of production costs which are over 44.60 cents per kilogramme of milk.
These figures are complied every quarter by the Büro für Agrarsoziologie (BAL) and are then published jointly by the MEG Milch Board and the European Milk Board (EMB).
Cost analyses for other European countries show that this is "neither a temporary problem nor a situation limited to Germany," the Milk Board said.
Costs figures for Denmark and the Netherlands at the beginning of the year showed how even countries with large farm structures are facing a constant deficit in milk production costs.
With average costs of 41.70 cents in 2015, Denmark suffered losses of over 10 cents, while the deficit for Dutch producers with costs of 44.50 cents was almost 14 cents per kilogramme of milk.
Indeed, prices in the Netherlands in recent years have never been high enough to fully cover costs.
'Immense pressure faced by dairy farmers'
"This constant shortfall in price coverage means that farmers must subsidise their production out of their own pockets," says Romuald Schaber, President of the EMB, describing the immense pressure faced by dairy farmers
"To make this possible, they do not pay themselves for the work they put in and take on loans to salvage their milk production and farms for the time being."
"When even this fails, many farms abandon milk production, raising a very urgent question. Can we really treat those producing our food so unfairly and allow production in many regions of Europe to simply disappear?"
"While it is obvious that the answer to this question is 'No', the next question about options to address these unfair conditions is also self-evident.
"To bring prices to a fair level, the volume of milk on the market must be reduced," outlines Schaber as the solution for the dairy sector.
"Producers willing to reduce their production volume should receive financial compensation.
"After all, they would be contributing to stabilising the market, which would benefit all producers in the form of higher prices."
There are many voices calling for these voluntary production cuts at EU level in order to alleviate the dairy crisis - they include ministers of many EU Member States, MEPs and members of the Committee of the Regions.
"It is absolutely essential that the European Commission also joins this camp," says Schaber.
