Behind the latest scandal over a higher concentration of aflatoxins found in milk from farms in eastern Croatia are big corporations and import lobbies whose interest is to import as much of cheap and poor-quality foreign milk as possible and to have good domestic milk removed from the shelves in Croatian shops, Farmers' Union (SHS) union leader Tomislav Pokrovac told the press on Saturday.
Commenting on reports about the suspension of milk purchases from dairy farmers in Eastern Slavonia, Pokrovac said that this move by dairy companies Dukat, Meggle and Vindija was leading to the collapse of the Croatian dairy industry and agriculture. He said that reports of an elevated level of aflatoxins found in raw milk did not seem credible to him.
"I emphatically declare that milk produced on Croatian farms is among the healthiest in the European Union, just as Croatia's entire agricultural production is. I think the problem is with long-life milk and not with raw milk," he said.
"It's an awful situation. People have not received their subsidies and now they have to spill their milk. How are they supposed to make a living? I call on the government and the Ministry of Agriculture to finally respond in the interests of Croatian agriculture and farmers, before domestic agricultural production has been totally destroyed, which seems to be someone's goal," Pokrovac said.
