Today begins national strike of dairy farmers

The Association of Dairy Farmers of Peru (Agalep) called for a national strike on March 15, which will bring together 2,000 producers in Lima and 8,000 in regions, in order to expose the difficulties and needs of the sector.

Nivia Vargas, president of Agalep, emphasized that they ask that companies in the dairy industry -such as Gloria and Laive- pay them a fair price, since they currently give them S/ 1.06 per liter of milk, when it should be S/ 1 .80, due to the increase in the cost of production (feed for the cows).

For its part, from the National Society of Industries (SNI) indicated that, of the total raw milk produced by farmers, 47% is offered to the industry, which involves 30,000 producers. They did not provide more details about the price at which they buy the dairy, and indicated that each company opts for independent aid to its suppliers.

Regulatory changes

At the root of the problem, the livestock unions ask the Executive to modify the milk regulations so that they are governed by the FDA code, which provides that evaporated milk is made only with fluid or cow’s milk. And it is that, as Vargas explained, in 2017 changes were made to abide by the Codex Alimentarius, which allows the use of powdered milk.

They warn that this generates unfair competition for local producers, since large companies prefer to import powdered milk because it is cheaper. “To such an extent that the industry has exaggerated the importation of powdered milk and whey, harming us because they don’t buy cow’s milk from us, that’s why we are going bankrupt. And more than that, they do not increase the price, despite the higher production cost that we charge,” Vargas pointed out.

Dairy farmers in lean times

The head of the cabinet of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), Javier Bobadilla, told La República that the portfolio’s position will be to support the regulatory proposal for dairy farmers. Later, the ministry sent a statement confirming that they had already presented a supreme decree to the Executive in this line, and it will be discussed in the Council of Ministers this Wednesday.

This newspaper was able to learn that The changes will seek precisely that for the production of evaporated milk that is sold to the public, only fresh or cow’s milk is used, and not powdered milk, as provided by the FDA. Although this proposal must also be approved by the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Trade and Production.