Two leaders of Slavonian farmers -- Antun Laslo and Petar Pranjic -- told the media on Monday that they appreciated the action plan which Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina on Sunday presented with measures to partially offset the losses of the dairy farmers, however, the farmer leaders find those steps to be insufficient.

Under the HRK 5-million plan, milk supplies which have not been purchased due to samples positive for higher-than-prescribed levels of aflatoxin will be shipped to three biomass plants in Slavonia where they will be safely destroyed.

The minister said that farmers would also be offered assistance in cattle fodder as this was the main cause of the appearance of aflatoxins. The farms with the questionable milk will be given supplies of maize from the state-run commodity trading agency to replace their own reserves. Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus. Aflatoxin-producing members of Aspergillus, common and widespread in nature, can colonize and contaminate grain before harvest or during storage.

At his previous news conference on Friday, the minister reported that commodity stock maize had been tested and was safe.

"It is not enough to promise partial compensation as farmers are incurring huge losses, and it is unclear what is going on and whose interests are at stake," Pranjic said.

According to the data release by the minister, higher concentrations of mycotoxins have been detected in samples of milk taken from 400 dairy farms in eastern Croatia that produce some 70,000 litres of raw milk daily.

Pranjic told the press today that the purchase of milk had been suspended from 180 farms as soon as the scandal broke out, but currently milk has not been purchased from 500-600 dairy farms.

He deems it illogical not to purchase milk from farms where no analysis of milk quality and ingredients has been conducted.

Laslo said that for instance, representatives of the Dukat dairy company insisted that dairy farms must buy medication for cattle at the price of HRK 1,500 without previous inspections of the milk on those farms.

"Because of all those ambiguities and insufficient information, we demand the declaration of an emergency for the purpose of compensating the affected farmers fully," Laslo said.