Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-364"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2007-09-04"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption - Common organisation of the milk and milk products market - Additional rules on the common organisation of the milk and milk products markets (debate)2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20070904.29.2-364"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2007-09-04-Speech-2-3652
lpv:speaker	lp:Struan Stevenson2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, I wish to begin by congratulating Mrs Jeggle on her three reports – the mini-milk package. It was very clear right from the start that there was general agreement on her reports, and that was demonstrated by the Commissioner. Members asked for this debate so that they could discuss the wider issues affecting Europe’s dairy industry, and I will be no exception to that. Until very recently, dairy farms were the Cinderella sector of the UK farming industry. Thanks to murky economic practices, which allow supermarkets to squeeze down the price of milk to 17p per litre while they sell it on to the public at 50p a litre, many of our dairy farmers were going out of business. It is worth remembering that even at 50p per litre, milk is still half the price of bottled water in our supermarkets, and you do not have to calve a bottle of water or send for the vet to attend to its needs. Until quite recently, of the 27 EU Member States, only Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary and Lithuania had lower milk prices than the UK, and the result has been that in the last five years in my constituency in Scotland we have lost around 500 dairy farmers. There are now an estimated 1 400 dairy farms left in Scotland – that is all. It is estimated that across the UK one dairy farmer is leaving the industry every day. It is only now as world cereal prices – in particular wheat – have almost doubled, forcing up the price of feed, and as pressure on productive farmland grows for biofuels and other non-food crops, that some supermarkets have finally begun to panic at the prospect of an actual milk shortage and, as a result, have started paying dairy farmers a slightly higher price. At long last, dairy farmers have begun to see some light at the end of the tunnel and they are at least getting more than the cost of production for their commodity."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3 member; PECH (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (2007-05-23--2009-07-13)3 substitute; EMPL (2007-02-12--2009-07-13)3 substitute; Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China (2007-03-14--2009-07-13)3 substitute; AGRI (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 unknown; Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 vice-chair; EPP-ED (2007-02-15--2009-07-13)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Struan Stevenson,"1 "on behalf of the PPE-DE Group"1

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