BRUSSELS, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The European Federation of Agricultural Workers' Unions (EFA) urged European milk producers on Thursday not to use dairy products as a means of political pressure.
European countries have been shaken by a "milk crisis" for several months. Milk producers across Europe have been dumping milk in protest against low milk prices, which they say have left them in financial ruin.
Farmers claim that dairy oversupply has cut producer prices to about 0.20 euros ($0.29) a liter from 0.40 euros ($0.59) two years ago, which they say they need to stay profitable, and blame the EU and individual governments.
"It is incomprehensible why the famers are trying to attract the attention of politicians in such a way," the EFA said in a statement.
On Monday, European diary farmers, indignant at the slump of milk prices, dumped about 30 million liters of milk on fields in Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy.
Last week, around 200 German farmers poured away some 14,000 liters of milk into a river near the Helfta Abbey in Germany's eastern town of Eisleben, poisoning thousands of fish.
Ministers of Agriculture of 27 European countries are to hold an emergency meeting on the "milk issue" on October 5 in Brussels. European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel is expected to introduce a roadmap on the development of the European dairy market, taking into consideration the situation in the sector.
