Milk farmers demonstrate for better market conditions

This summer farmers demonstrated on the roads to call attention to the import dumping of dairy products – many of which are imported illegally and sold at very low prices. As a result of this practice raw milk is purchased from dairy farmers at reducing prices in Hungary. Farmers say large quantities of imported UHT milk and semi-hard cheese are the biggest problems in the domestic market. One of the reasons behind this trend is the high, 18-percent VAT on milk: this is a large enough sum for frauds to risk not paying it. In the European Union it is in Hungary where the price of raw milk is one of the lowest, at the moment it is HUF 100/kg. At the same time raw milk is imported from Poland, Germany and Austria – in the latter two it is 6 and 16 forints more expensive per kilogram. The National Association of Agricultural Cooperatives and Producers (MOSZ) stated that dairy farmers’ demonstration was justified and added that they didn’t oppose import per se, they only have problems with the EU’s milk surplus being dumped on the Hungarian market. The Ministry of Agriculture rapidly announced that it agrees with farmers’ goal to see more Hungarian dairy products on store shelves. They reminded that milk import fell 43 percent last year and in the last few years demand for Hungarian milk rose by 10 percent per year. Some retail chains published data on the structure of their dairy product turnover, for instance 99 percent of fresh milk Metro Hungary sells is purchased from Hungarian farmers and 64 percent of their dairy products are Hungarian