The protests will continue until our demands are met, Igor Resetar, president of the Croatian Federation of Milk Farmers' Associations, told reporters.

Milk farmers were protesting on Thursday for the third consecutive day outside the Dukat dairy company in Zagreb and its daughter company Sirela in Bjelovar, where they also spilled their milk. Protests were also staged outside the KIM dairy company in Karlovac and Dukat's logistics centre in Djakovo.

The protesting milk farmers are dissatisfied with Dukat's offer for the purchase price of milk for February of HRK 2.30 per litre. They are not satisfied with Wednesday's meeting at the Agriculture Ministry and claim that no agreement was reached and that the purchase price of milk was not defined.

They want Dukat to withdraw its offer for the purchase price of raw milk for February of 2.30 kuna per litre, which is around 0.40 kuna less than the previous price, and demand that the average purchase price be the same as in the EU.

Resetar said protests would also be staged outside other dairy companies.

Commenting on the protests, Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina said milk farmers should not be dealing with their problems in the streets, but at the negotiating table.

He said that at yesterday's meeting of the Council for the Dairy Industry progress was made and that a compromise solution was almost reached, but that some milk farmers' representatives walked out of the meeting and were now denying the meeting's conclusions.

"Great damage is being done to the dairy sector and to milk farmers who cannot deliver their milk since entrances to some dairies are blocked. If the memo (on determining the purchase price of milk) was unacceptable, a model should be found that is acceptable to both sides," he said.

He added that farmers' leaders who today spilled milk outside the ministry were not Dukat's contractors.

Jakovina said that a number of dissatisfied milk farmers phoned his ministry today asking for help because they could not deliver milk to dairies due to their blockade and that a number of milk farmers' associations expressed their disagreement with the protest leaders, opposing the way they were trying to solve the problem.

The minister recalled that at yesterday's meeting it was agreed that the purchase price of milk should be formed in talks between milk farmers and dairy companies. By the end of this month, each dairy will agree with representatives of milk farmers a model for the formation of milk prices to be applied as of February, he said.

This evening, a meeting was under way at the ministry between Minister Jakovina and representatives of the Croatian Federation of Milk Farmers' Associations.

The Croatian Farmers' Association said it supported the protests, adding that its dairy farmers were also participating in them.

Dukat today called on the protesting farmers blocking its dairies to make it possible to collect milk from Dukat's contractors and urged the Ministry of the Interior and responsible police departments to enable dairies to operate without interruption and purchase milk.

Sirela, Dukat and KIM Mljekara Karlovac make up Dukat's dairy system which has been blocked for the last three days, said the company.