Philipp Groteloh, lawyer and managing director of the milk producer association Milch Board, said the current system puts farmers in a corset. Farmers wanted their products to add value through the market and not depend on subsidies. He also considered sole delivery obligations in cooperative trading with price fixing, which affects around 70 percent of all milk deliveries, to be problematic.
The price currently remains 20 percent below the actual costs, noted Groteloh. In Groteloh’s opinion, the cooperatives should be included in a national implementation of Article 148 because the current exclusive supply obligations are an obstacle to competition. In his opinion, small farmers have the opportunity to join together to form producer groups. So-called three-party contracts between producers, processors and retailers would also be possible.
Peter Manderfeld, CEO of Hochwald Milch eG, however, firmly rejected the implementation of Article 148 in Germany. He sees this as a massive encroachment on the cooperative’s statutory autonomy. Manderfeld warned against campaigning for the abolition of the cooperative principle.
Price negotiations are completely wishful thinking; the price is always realized on the market. The milk price increases in the past had to do with the export market being wiped out.