Milk

The Serbian government has decided to introduce import levies on milk and sour milk products to protect domestic production from excessive imports.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by Agriculture Minister Snezana Bogosavljevic-Boskovic..

The number of livestock holdings for cattle, sheep and goats, and pigs in Bulgaria fell by 34% on an annual basis in 2014, according to a media statement of Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry.

Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry published statistics on livestock by November 2014.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated on Thursday that the government will introduce special levies on milk.

The reason is that "domestic producers cannot cope with the tough competition after the complete opening of the Serbian market for milk imports."

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva has suggested that the state is looking for mechanisms to support milk producers amid the ongoing crisis.

Taneva said in a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Television that the crisis plaguing the dairy market was felt on an EU-level.

Here’s a productive way to use your euros in the European setting, namely, financing an EU scheme in order to supply schools with more fruits, vegetables and milk, as per demands by MEPs.

Bosnian authorities are preparing a response to EU's Food and Veterinary Office, FVO, in which they will outline how they aim to meet conditions that would open up the EU market to Bosnia's dairy farmers.

The EU market remains closed to Bosnia's dairy farmers because the country does not meet EU hygienic standards has not harmonized all the relevant laws in this sector.

Bulgaria and ten other member states will seek EU aid to compensate for the abolition of the milk quotas.

This was announced by the Deputy Agriculture Minister Tsvetan Dimitrov in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Friday.

More than 1,000 Romanian farmers took part in a protest on Thursday in Bucharest, demanding more subsidies from the government and expressing fears that the EU decision to scrap milk production quotas will ruin them.

Bosnia's new state government - the Council of Ministers - is facing a tough challenge only one day after it was confirmed in office as a result of panic spreading among local dairy farmers.

They want protection against an EU decision to scrap quotas on dairy production, which became effective from April 1 - and could lead to price drops and a flood of imports.

The European Union abolished milk quotas on Tuesday after they had been in existence for more than 30 years, a decision which caused division among member states.

This step is expected to expand opportunities for some dairy farmers, while it will most probably pose threat to the livelihood of others, EurActiv reports.