“A shock for the dairy industry”, reacts the head of the FNSEA

The dairy group announced on Wednesday that from the end of the year it would reduce the volumes of milk collected from French farms for international markets.

“It’s a shock for the dairy industry,” reacted Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, Thursday September 26 on franceinfo, while the Lactalis group announced Wednesday that it would reduce from the end of 2024 the volumes of milk collected in French farms for international markets. “That’s nearly 450 million milks that will no longer be collected by 2030. For us, the challenge is to ensure that milk producers will continue to find someone to collect their milk.”he added.

The French group Lactalis, the world number one in milk, will reduce these collection volumes by almost 8%, which represents 2% of French milk. “When you are picked up by the world number one, you have the feeling that you are with someone who is solid,” explained Arnaud Rousseau. But for the head of the FNSEA, Lactalis’ difficulties are not a surprise: “Lactalis had negotiated last spring with the producers’ organisations. It had let it be known that it had difficulties with the share of the market that is exported.”he said.

“We will have to have discussions. All this is not going to happen tomorrow morning, it will happen over time. But the goal for us is obviously that those who want to continue producing milk find a structure that continues to collect their milk.”continued Arnaud Rousseau. He is “too early”, According to him, to quantify the number of herds that could disappear: “We will have to let Lactalis have this discussion with the producer organisations. But once again, this is not good news.”

Regarding the crisis in agriculture, “We need very concrete answers”says the president of the FNSEA, after his meeting with the new Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard. “It’s a very bad year” for farmers, “but above all what questions us is that there are no answers on the structural level, there are many uncertainties on the national political level, it makes a kind of accumulation with an explosive side”warned the president of the FNSEA.