Germany’s Dairy Farmers Give Milk to Poor, Rather than Take Low Prices from Cartel Processor

Feb. 7, 2020 (EIRNS)—Deutsche Milchkontor (DMK Group), a leading dairy conglomerate in Germany and provider of processed dairy products for cartel food warehouses, has responded to farmers’ demands that they receive more money (at the “farmgate”) for the milk they produce and deliver, with arguments against farmer demands. DMK asserts what amounts to attempted blackmail. The firm declares that they could no longer deliver milk to the food warehouses if it is in a way to imply that consumer prices will be higher, because they cannot do that to their purchasing customers.

On Feb. 3, Chancellor Angela Merkel met with farm representatives, and gave indication of support for the dairy farmers’ demands, in principle. But no action.

In response, farmer networks this week retaliated by staging various actions to publicize the impossible situation farmers face. In Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, farmers responded promptly to the DMK stance, by buying up dairy products worth €1,500 in local warehouses, and announcing that they would distribute the dairy foods to food banks and soup kitchens for the poor.

Since they are denied parity prices for the milk they produce, farmers feel solidarity with the poor, who are treated badly as well. While DMK pays propagandistic lip service to honoring their purchasing clients, DMK has no scruples whatever about arm-twisting farmers into selling their milk to it for ridiculously low prices. With the concentration of processors, farmers have next to no market other than DMK.