The milk price crisis and the lack of generational relief have taken away 43% of Girona’s farms over the last decade. According to data from the Generalitat, of the 357 that were in the demarcation at the beginning of 2012, it has now gone to 203. The figures not only include farms that sell milk, but also those that make derivatives (such as yogurts, custards or curds). In addition, the farms that survive are increasingly tending towards a macro-farming model. This means that, although there are fewer, the overall production of milk does not decline. From the cooperative Our milk they regret that the consequences of the war ofUkrainewhich are accelerating farm closures.
According to data from Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, in the last year (from March 2021 to March 2022) they have closed six farms. Of these, they have done it inAlt Empordaone at Cerdanyaone at Garrotxa and three to Plan de l’Estany. Currently, there are 36 dairy farms in Alt Empordà, 25 in Down Empordà33 in Cerdanya, 22 in Garrotxa, 34 in Girona31 at Selva15 in Pla de l’Estany and 7 in Ripollès.
The president of Llet Nostra, Jordi Riembau, explains that the crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine has accelerated the closure of milk farms “expected in four or five years” due to a lack of generational relief. “We had been working with minimal margins for years and with the increase in the price of energy, those who were about to retire preferred to fold already”, he explains. In this line, Riembau denounces that “the production costs” of milk are not respected because, as he details, there are large areas that sell it “at prices that are far below what it costs to produce it and use it as claim”, thus causing unfair competition in the sector which causes a drop in the price of milk.
For his part, the secretary ofFood of the Climate Action Department, Carmel Module, agrees to say that the product “has become commonplace”, but affirms that the price of milk “has risen since the beginning of the year”. Specifically, he explains, the producer has gone from charging around 30 cents per liter of milk, to just over 50 cents. “They were losing money there; now they have incorporated the increase in energy costs”, assures Mòdol, who adds that “as the cost evolves, so does the price of milk” and that this “hasn’t happened for a long time”.
More macro exploits
The elimination of the European aid known as the “dairy quota system” in 2015 caused the dairy sector to cease to have a regulated market and has gradually led to the emergence of macro-farms. “The current aid does not compensate for the rules of the market”, explains Mòdol, who details that in this way, “the farmer who has few animals and, therefore, a higher production cost, folds”.
Instead, large farms survive. The statistics show that “no liters of milk have been lost because farms have disappeared, but the rest have incorporated more cows”. A situation that the Secretary of Food assures causes “unease” because, among others, it “depopulates the territory”. “We will have milk, but we will not have the territory occupied and managed as God commands.” For this reason, he assures, we are working with “policies to favor milk” such as encouraging livestock groups.
This is precisely one of the strengths of Llet Nostra, which has only small and medium-sized farms as members. The cooperative allows members to maintain the farms in the territory and “generates direct and indirect jobs”. In addition, according to Riembau, they follow “a circular economy” and he justifies this with an example: “We use cow dung to fertilize the fields where we grow their food”.
Grouping together also allows them to set a higher milk price, but with a ceiling so as not to distance themselves too far from the competition. A liter of Llet Nostra is worth 1.25 euros, unlike those that sell it for less than a euro. “We can raise the price a little, but not too much because we wouldn’t sell,” says Riembau. In order to survive, one of the cooperative’s bets is to produce derivative products such as custards, yogurts or cottage cheese. And in fact, this is one of the recommendations made by the Climate Action Department “to be able to generate added value”. “If you’re only using milk, you’re very vulnerable because they make it every day and you have to take it out quickly because it has a short shelf life,” says Mòdol.
In summer, production drops by 25%
Regarding the increase in temperatures and the drought, the president of Llet Nostra explains that the Empordà has been suffering for some time. “We always have a drop in production in the months of July, August and September, due to the weather Mediterranean», he affirms. Riembau details that in the summer production falls by 25% compared to the strongest months of April and May.
In addition, the crisis has also resulted in a loss of liters of milk because “to cover the costs, the farms have had to slaughter animals ahead of time that go to the slaughterhouse and represent another income”. As for the farms that have closed definitively, “they have sold the animals of suitable production age to other farms and the rest to the meat industry”. However, according to Riembau, this year “they had more difficulty relocating the cows because no one was willing to invest”.
Our milk
Let Nostra is made up of two cooperatives: Ranchers of the Baix Empordà (40 granges) i Cadí de la Seu d’Urgell (80 farms). “We have four milk production centers”, explains Riembau. These are the Baix Empordà, the Pla de l’Estany, the Selva and the Gironès as a whole and, finally, the plain of Lleida.
The cooperative says they are “lucky” because “there is a waiting list” to join. They only admit new ones “when there is a need for milk”. As the president explains, they cannot produce much surplus because they would not know what to do with it. “Each cow produces around 30 liters of milk a day and it must be consumed because it doesn’t last long,” explains the farmer.
Currently, they produce around 40 to 45 million liters of milk a year. They do this with small and medium farms of up to a maximum of 250 cows. “We provide jobs in the territory where many people are now missing and we emit less methane gas and slurry because there are few heads of livestock”. In this race to be more sustainable, Llet Nostra is conducting a study with theInstitute of Agro-food Research and Technology (IRTA) to implement actions such as generating electricity from photovoltaic panels, changing the feeding of cows so that they emit less or treating manure with covered pits and improving its application in the field.