"The protests need to stop. We will resume dialogue as soon as representatives of the associations, especially the discontent ones, have consulted with their associations and come up with the best solution," Jakovina told reporters as dairy farmers continued their protests for the fourth day.

Jakovina said that the Ministry would not yield to the pressure. He said the protests by some of the milk producers were groundless and illegitimate and were causing great damage to the producers, the milk processing industry and the entire economy.

Jakovina said that the conclusions reached by the Council for the Dairy Industry on Wednesday had been accepted by a majority of dairy producers and that they were a good starting point for a compromise solution in search of a new model for the calculation of the purchase price of milk that would be binding on both the dairy companies and the dairy producers.

Later on, the leader of the national federation of dairy farmers' associations, Igor Resetar, said that protests would continue until their demands were met.

"We will not remove ourselves until our demands have been met, and the entrances to the dairies are not blocked," he said, expressing his dissatisfaction because a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture had not been held today as promised by the minister on Thursday.

Resetar said that the milk producers could not agree to the Ministry and the government being just mediators in efforts to resolve their problems, but that they should find a way how to help the producers to cut costs and solve the situation regarding the purchase price of milk.

He blamed the Dukat dairy company for the damage done, saying that with the purchase price of 2.30 kuna per litre, which is offered by Dukat, the producers would go bankrupt and that it was better for them to go bankrupt now than in six months.