Milk farmers started the protests on Tuesday, dissatisfied with the purchase price of milk offered to them by Dukat, which in January told its milk farmers that as of February it would determine the purchase price of milk on the basis of market prices.

Milk farmers from other northwestern towns, too, have set out for Zagreb on their tractors. Mladen Solcic, vice-president of the Croatian Federation of Milk Farmers Associations (HSUPM), said milk farmers from Cakovec, Varazdin, Krizevci and other towns could arrive in Zagreb today on 50-70 tractors.

The protesters will not disperse until their demands are met and further actions will be known after today's meeting of the Council for the Dairy Industry at the Agriculture Ministry, said Solcic.

Around one hundred milk farmers gathered at noon on Tuesday outside Dukat in Zagreb and more than 300 milk farmers on 150 tractors rallied outside Sirela in Bjelovar to protest against the purchase price of milk.

Milk farmers want Dukat to withdraw its offer for the purchase price of milk for February in the amount of HRK 2.30 per litre and demand that the average purchase price of milk be the same as in the EU.

If no agreement is reached at today's meeting of the Council for the Dairy Industry, protests will be staged outside all dairy factories on Thursday, farmers' representatives said.

Dukat said that the protests outside its and other dairy companies' headquarters would not help resolve accumulated problems in this sector, but would only create additional ones.