An agreement on the purchase price of milk, subsidising of production costs, a reduction of Value Added Tax to 8.5% for material required for the production of raw milk, and fixing of the price of blue-dyed diesel are some of the demands the Croatian federation of dairy farmers' associations will present to the dairy industry and the Ministry of Agriculture at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
The demands are specified in a draft tripartite agreement which the federation presented at a press conference on Tuesday.
Milk producers demand that the minimum purchase price of milk be formed based on the average price in the 27 European Union member states for the previous three months. They want the Agriculture Ministry to subsidise production costs and the government to intervene on the dairy market with 0.42 kuna for one kilogram of milk for the period from November 1, 2011 until Croatia's entry into the EU, which is set for July 1, 2013.
They also demand exemption from payment of customs duties on imports of cattle fodder, seed and artificial fertilisers, a reduction of VAT to 8.5% for all material required for raw milk production, and fixing of the price of blue-dyed diesel for the next year.
Dairy farmers are calling for a review of the contracts with dairy companies, but emphasise that they have nothing against individual associations signing contracts with individual companies because they have a right to do so. They want a tripartite body to be established to monitor milk prices on the European market and to work out models of subsidies or other ways of financing milk production and milk processing and stimulating exports of milk and milk products. They also demand tighter border control on imports of raw milk and powdered milk to allow into the country only those products that are of the same quality as Croatian ones.
The head of the farmers' negotiating team, Darko Pavicevic, said that these problems should be resolved in a package at the negotiating table. He said that the protesting farmers would not remove their tractors from the roads until an agreement was reached on all these points, but stressed that the roads would not be blocked.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina told a press conference that the problems should be addressed in dialogue between the interested parties, calling on the protesters to remove themselves from the roads and sit at the negotiating table.
Jakovina reiterated that it was not the Ministry's job to define prices, but that it would help achieve the best agreement possible between the dairy farmers and the dairy companies. He stressed that the only way to deal with the problems at hand was through negotiation.
