Image: LKOÖ
June 1st is World Milk Day: around this date, the Upper Austrian Chamber of Agriculture (LKOÖ) traditionally holds a press conference to shed more light on the situation in the dairy industry. The dairy farmers are currently acting in a field of tension: “They are confronted with high price increases, for example in the areas of energy, construction, feed and fertilizer,” said LKOÖ President Franz Waldenberger today, Wednesday. In addition, the milk price is falling: Since the beginning of the year, producer prices have lost around ten percent and are currently around 50 cents per kilogram net. Chamber director Karl Dietachmair named several factors for this development: Firstly, there is currently a lot of milk on the market. This is also due to the fact that the stocks increased significantly due to the good producer prices in the previous year, not only in Austria but also internationally. Added to this is the reluctance of consumers as a result of the inflation debate: Customers are increasingly turning to cheaper dairy products. Global developments would also play a role.
Inflation is a much-discussed topic: many consumers currently prefer private label and discount items to organic and hay milk. Waldenberger advocated that the discussion about the affordability of food should not be carried out on the backs of farmers: “Inflation in Austria is higher than the EU average, but the rise in food prices is below it.” The discussion is exclusively about the price, the quality aspect is neglected. A variety of milk, a relatively small-scale agriculture and the topography are beneficial to the quality of the products, but do not make them cheaper. If it is not possible to get this additional expense compensated by retailers and consumers, structural change will continue to accelerate and the degree of self-sufficiency will decrease.
The companies are becoming fewer, but always larger
The development of Upper Austrian companies has been going in the same direction for years: the number of companies is falling, but the individual farms are getting larger. Since 2010, the number of dairy farms has halved to 5,840. During the same period, the number of dairy cows increased from 169,000 to 171,100. This means that the number of cows is at a multi-year high and has increased by 10,000 within a year. More than 700 farms have more than 50 cows in the barn.
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