Falling milk prices and impending bankruptcies.
“We expected this drop in the prices of raw milk, it happens in Europe as well. But while there it happened gradually, here it became an avalanche. Farmers are in shock. The price has collapsed,” commented Mihail Mihailov, executive director of the National Union, to BNR of the cattle breeders. He defined what was happening as a phenomenon.
At large farms, since February 15, the purchase price of milk is BGN 1.05, and at small ones there are also signals for 80 cents. The cost price of a liter of milk varies from 1.34-1.52 cents, that is, 30 cents is the loss, Mihailov explained in the program “Before All”.
“There are already farms that have been refused to buy the milk,” Mihailov warned.
“Yesterday, our second farmer forced himself to pour his milk,” he admitted.
However, pouring the milk is illegal, so the problem arises as to who will pay if it should be legal, commented Mihail Mihailov.
Milk cannot be donated to different institutions, because another law forbids it, he pointed out another paradox.
According to him, recent studies show that the loss of one cow per year will be from 400 to 800 leva, even up to 1000 leva at some farms.
Among the member states, we are in the queue in terms of purchase price of milk – third from the back to the front, he specified.
“The profit remains with someone. One catches fish in murky water,” believes Mihail Mihailov.
In some countries, they already put a minimum on the purchase prices, he emphasized and gave examples of France and Hungary. “So that the farmer can tie things up and freeze this gallop in prices,” he explained.
According to him, large quantities of imported milk are bought, while the Bulgarian production remained unsold.
The latest version is that it is bought for 84 cents – from Poland, Hungary, Romania, Mihailov pointed out.
“We cannot stop imports. The issue is quality,” he explained.
Mihailov predicted bankruptcies of farms.
“Our farmers are on the brink. Dairying is the hardest in agriculture. There are many people going bankrupt,” he said.
Mihailov also announced that the Union of Cattle Breeders will prepare a letter “to support the sale of milk” and another – “in the event of bankruptcy, the farmer will receive a decent price for the animal that he will take to the slaughterhouse.”