A milk strike won't help matters

Since Thursday French milk farmers have been using a delivery boycott to fight for higher prices, and have called on their European colleagues to join in. Economist Nicolas-Jean Brehon criticises the delivery strike in the business paper Les Echos: "The sum doesn't add up, prices are too low. But a milk strike? A strike won't raise prices, and it's deceptive to give the idea that it's possible to lower quotas. As far as that goes the game is up. A large majority of member states favour the decision taken less than a year ago to raise or even do away with quotas. And many states are holding to this position despite the current crisis. ... Even the states most reticent about raising quotas are now acquiescing. Moreover, production adjusts itself to a decline in demand, and lowering quotas wouldn't change that. So will nothing come of the strike? Unfortunately that's not the case. Its repercussions could be disastrous."

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