LONDON: UK dairy farmers are suffering because of the EU’s foreign policy, a senior official has admitted – after exports dropped by more than £1 billion last year.
Agricultural commissioner Phil Hogan confessed that Vladmir Putin’s ban on imports of dairy products – in retaliation to restrictions imposed by the EU – has caused a slump in demand.
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This has forced a steep drop in the earnings of UK farmers.
Last August Putin banned Russian imports of EU dairy products – along with meats, vegetables and fish – in response to sanctions imposed by Brussels alongside the US after Crimea was annexed from Ukraine.
Desperate farmers have said they are at breaking point as farm gate milk prices have plummeted by 25 per cent over the past year to 23.7 pence per litre in June – their lowest since May 2010.
