German milk strike spreads to other European countries

It said deliveries dropped by some 60 percent in Switzerland's Zurich region and in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Dairymen Board urged its 4,000 producers to “keep milk on the farm.”

 The strike in Germany, Europe's biggest
milk producer, began on Tuesday as farmers heeded a call by the BDM
to stop supplying milk in order to force up prices that are currently
hovering between 28 and 34 euro cents per litre.

Nearly 30,000 German dairy farmers
halted milk deliveries to retailers Wednesday on the second day of
their strike, according to the European Milk Board, based in the
western German city of Hamm.

Austria's IG Milch dairy association
weighed in with a call on the country's 43,000 dairy producers to
halt deliveries in protest at the milk price.

Germany's BDM dairy federation, which
represents almost half of the country's producers, said it had also
received "declarations of support" from Belgium, Luxembourg
and "parts of France."

The Swiss farmers' trade union Uniterre
said some 100 dairy producers in the west of the country voted
Wednesday in favour of joining a delivery strike in the
German-speaking part of Switzerland in support of German producers.

The milk price protest seemed set to
spread to Romania next week. Romanian agricultural trade union
Agrostar said dairy farmers would stage a three-day picket outside
the French embassy in Bucharest and the headquarters of dairy company
Danone to demand better prices for their milk.