Milk protests rage on

VILNIUS- Lithuanianfarmers are planning to stage rallies outside the country's largest dairycompanies on Aug. 5 in protest of the recent decrease in milk purchasingprices.

Milk producers will protest outside five milk processing companies: RokiskioSuris, Pieno Zvaigzdes, Zemaitijos Pienas, Vilkyskiu Pienine and MarijampolesPieno Konservai, at 11 a.m. local time, Bronius Markauskas, president of theChamber of Agriculture stated.

In Markauskas' words, about 100 tractors would be parked outside eachcompany, with no plans to interfere with their operations.

Representatives of the dairy companies, most of which ended the first halfof 2008 in negative territory, say that the farmers' protest rallies would notchange the milk purchasing prices in the country because the companies did nothave the reserves for raising the prices.

Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas has said that the disagreements betweenthe milk producers and processors should be solved through a goodwill agreementbetween parties rather than protests and rallies.

In considering the discontent of farmers, the government plans to carry outan independent audit of pricing of producers, dairies and trade companies.

In an effort to draw the attention of the administration and the society tothe complex situation in the country's milk sector, milk farmers distributedmilk for free outside the parliament inVilnius in the end of June.

Similar rallies and demonstrations have been held in Latvia as well. As ofyet, no solutions have been adopted.