French food giant Lactalis said it would renegotiate milk prices with French farmers after 400 of them protested outside the company’s headquarters in Laval this week.<br /><br /> European milk farmers have been struggling with a slump in prices fuelled by the ending of European Union quotas last year, a Russian import ban on Western food products and weak Chinese dairy imports.<br /><br /> When the quota ended some EU states such as Ireland were happy to boost production to meet global demand but others, such as France and Germany, were not.<br /><br /> French Farmers’ unions are now demanding that the food giants pay more for milk than current market prices, to keep farmers in business.<br /><br /> Unions say the price of 257 euros per 1,000 litres of milk currently paid by the family-owned group to French producers is well below their costs and between 10 and 30 euros below the price paid by competitors such as Danone, Sodiaal and Bel.<br /><br /> But food companies insist they face strong competition within the European Union where prices have fallen more steeply in the past year than in France.<br /><br /> In June, raw milk prices paid to producers stood at 27.70 euros per 100 kilograms in France, compared to 23.22 euros/100 kg in top producer Germany, 25.12 euros/100 kg in the UK and 25.00 euros/100 kg in the Netherlands, European Commission data showed.<br /><br /> Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll on Monday called for a dialogue on milk prices, adding that the government was ready to mediate to help resolve the situation.<br /><br /> Le Foll said he would put forward “in the coming days” a wider plan on the implementation of EU measures to limit milk output, which would also tackle price crises in the livestock and grain sectors.<br /><br /> The European Commission, the EU executive, said in July it would grant an additional 500 million euros ($567 million) to struggling farmers, includ ing subsidies to reduce milk output.<br /><br /> It also granted a package of 500 million euros in September last year, targeting mainly cash-flow difficulties and market stabilisation.<br />
