Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina said on Sunday he saw no reason for new negotiations on the purchase price of milk, thus responding to demands from some dairy farmers who, disgruntled with the price agreed this week, are blocking roads and seeking new negotiations which would include the Agriculture Ministry and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.
"We negotiated for about ten days and I see no reason... for new talks," Jakovina said on RTL's primetime news, adding that Milanovic was very busy and that his trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina was unlikely to be postponed.
He said the position of the government and his ministry on this issue was "very clear."
Jakovina called on the protesters to remove the roadblocks, return to their farms and start working, and to enable the ministry to find solutions for Croatia's agriculture until accession to the European Union.
The minister recalled that dairy farmers' associations had met with the dairy companies five times, with the Agriculture Ministry's mediation, to reach the solution whereby the purchase price of milk is based on the average of the prices in five EU countries (Germany, France, Hungary, Slovenia and Romania) and currently amounts to HRK 2.43.
He said the price included HRK 0.50 as incentive paid to dairy farmers until Croatia's EU accession, scheduled for July 2013, but added that the additional incentive of HRK 0.42, as an intervention measure, could no longer be paid.
Jakovina said the dairy companies' warehouses were full and that they claimed that, due to citizens' decreased purchasing power, they could not correct the price any more.
He also announced that incentives due for payment in June might be paid in late March so that farmers could prepare for the sowing as well as possible.
