Commenting on the situation on the ground, Resetar said the protesting farmers were receiving support from associations for their efforts to deal with problems in the dairy industry, that members of the public were joining the protesters and that the number of protest sites was growing.

Asked to comment on Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina's statement given earlier in the day that the farmers' protests were politically motivated to a large extent, Resetar said the minister was saying so because he did not know how to solve the problem.

As for Jakovina's doubts about the legitimacy of the protesters' representatives in light of the fact that the ministry was receiving information from a number of milk farmers' associations that they were against the current protests and favoured negotiations based on arguments, Resetar said that the HSUPM brought together 20 milk farmers' associations and had the authority to negotiate on behalf of 90 percent of milk farmers.

Milk farmers have been protesting outside the Dukat dairy company in Zagreb and the Sirela dairy in Bjelovar since Tuesday, and they also staged protests outside Dukat's logistics centre in Djakovo and outside the KIM dairy factory in Karlovac.

The farmers want Dukat to withdraw its offer for the purchase price of raw milk for February of HRK 2.30, which is about HRK 0.40 less than until now, and they demand the average purchase price of milk to be similar to the average price in the EU.

Earlier in the day, the Agriculture Ministry called on milk farmers to withdraw from roads, stop "causing more damage" and return to the negotiating table in line with conclusions of last week's meeting at the ministry.

"Claims by some milk farmers about the purchase price of milk being HRK 2.30 are not true because the matter has not been discussed. Dairies invite milk farmers to talks to be held next week to define the purchase price of milk," the ministry said in a statement on the ongoing farmers' protests.

"The damage caused by the non-purchase of milk is measured in millions of litres of milk, it will mostly affect milk farmers and has been caused by the blockade of dairies by some milk farmers whose criticism is unfounded and illegitimate, as well as partly politically motivated," the ministry said.