Spain and Portugal are set to ask the EU for effective measures to alleviate the crisis affecting the dairy cattle sector, the Valle de los Pedroches in Córdoba being particularly badly hit.
According to ASAJA, the Associatoion of Farmers, one thousand dairy farms have closed in the past fifteen years.
The Spanish government is asking for, amongst other things, an update to the reference price for butter and skimmed milk, export refunds and permission for private storage to try and force an increase in prices.
The amount of milk production is plummeting while production costs, particularly feed costs during the drought, are on the increase. Farmers say that it costs them 40 cents to produce a litre of milk which they then have to sell for 34 cents.