The situation of small dairy producers is not the best. According to the unions that group them, whoThey have raised their hands to demand that the Ministry of Agriculture take action on the matter to prevent the country’s dairy farmers from continuing to suffer from low payments. that end up affecting their production, the stability of their families and the food security of the country.
In this regard, they were the National Association of Milk Producers (Analac) and the Colombian Association of Milk Processors (Asoleche), the unions that spoke out to request shock measures to improve the conditions of the sector, which made million-dollar investments to face the El Niño phenomenon, and which have not been able to be covered due to the low prices they are paid for their productions.
According to them, “the efforts of dairy farmers, who assumed additional costs to face the El Niño Phenomenon, are not coherently reflected in prices at the processing plant or in consumer prices. It generates a serious risk for all producers, their family income, the jobs they generate with dedication in the Colombian countryside. and it is detrimental to dairy products, which are essential products for the food and nutrition of the Colombian population.”
Consequently, the union is asking for actions to guarantee the supply of milk to the country and to address the situation of the more than 320,000 families dedicated to dairy production in the country.
“The coherent reaction in prices at the plant and at the consumer is essential for the food and nutritional security of the country and to strengthen the already incipient recovery of consumption. At Analac we call for better articulation of the chain that stops the great negative impact on the sector. and, especially, for the more than 320,000 families that generate their income from milk production in the Colombian countryside,” Analac concluded.
Regarding consumption, Asoleche asked Jhenifer Mojica, Minister of Agriculture, to pay attention and take actions to promote the consumption of milk and its derivatives.since the drop in demand for these products has been felt much more strongly for two years.
“We are at a critical moment for the sector, which needs forceful intervention to balance the balance between supply and demand. Today, being in the middle of 2024, there is no significant reactivation of consumption, whose decline has been complete for three years now and, although some growth was recorded in the first months of this year, it has been very discreet and insufficient to evacuate the very high inventories. what the Colombian industry has today. This situation is further aggravated by the increase in the volumes of raw milk, as a consequence of the levels of rain that favor this greater production,” he warned.
“It is not true, as some producer groups have recently expressed, that the formal industry has made capricious decisions not to purchase all of the current milk production. The thing is that, quite simply, having these inventory levels that were not managed to be evacuated has a very significant impact on the companies’ results. These volumes of product represent money that has already been paid to the rancher and is stagnant in the companies’ inventory accounts, generating storage costs and impact on cash flow,” Asoleche remarked.
