The milk buying back in the amount of 4 million Euros for 2011 and 2012, the solutions for farmers experiencing difficulties which will subject of a survey, the opening of the Exhibition Park of the Agricultural Association of São Miguel and the agreement of positions on the increase of the price of milk paid to producers were the main results of the audience that Carlos César granted to the Agricultural Federation of the Azores on Monday.

For the President of the Government, “there is no doubt that in the economic context in general and also in agriculture, there are difficulties resulting from increases in some production costs, which, in turn, have an impact on agrarian economies, such as the case of the Azores, whose economy is based on milk production. In this context, it is essential that the milk price paid to producers compensate the increased costs. And we are now at a stage, in which such compensation is not fully paid, thus resulting in increased difficulties for dairy farms. But we must also take into account that these difficulties are harder for a universe of producers and farms dealing, in most cases, with problems related to the lack of production quality, lack of size and scale of production, or even with investments that have been poorly evaluated.”

Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, Carlos César assured that the Government several types of solutions for these difficulties. “For those farms that have made investments that they should not and which are unbalanced, we must assess in each case whether it is worth helping them through a line of financial restructuring and debt reduction, or if the company should leave the market. In the remaining cases, it is is essential to continue to boost dimension and quality in the regional agrarian structure through tools,  such as the milk buying back, in addition to others such as funding the purchase of land by farmers, mechanisation of farming and the provision of training in general.”

For the President of the Government, “we are committed in undertaking a great effort in all these areas, for example through the milk buying back, and thus we are to taking action from a structural perspective in the defence of the economy of the sector.”

With regard to milk issues, the President of the Government, who was accompanied by the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry this meeting, Noé Rodrigues, believes that “it is possible and it is desirable that the dairy industry corresponds to this effort that is being undertaken to improve quality and production among our farmers. And we understand that a mid-year increase is important regardless the seasonality of prices, as well as the improvement of the regional producers’ income. We believe that the industry understands it; we are also taking steps to develop the dialogue between producers and manufacturers in order to be a more fruitful dialogue with a stronger impact. Moreover, we are also hopeful that the negotiation and consultation taking place at national level, which also includes the distribution networks which have national headquarters, may define another framework for the Region so that milk price may increase with this stimulus brought national negotiations.

“What is important to know,” said Carlos Cesar, “is that the Agricultural Federation of the Azores and the Regional Government are undertaking joint efforts the defend the milk sector by protecting the income of producers and the restructuring of our agricultural sector which has been successively strengthened the structural point of view. The average farm size and quality of productions, have also registered considerable advances in recent years, without which our agricultural structure would not have been able to resist the way it has resisted to difficult situations of the international market.”