Germany allocates €100mln in emergency aid for dairy farmers

The German government will support German dairy farmers suffering from milk prices fall with an emergency aid of at least 100 million euros (111 million U.S. dollars), German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt announced on Monday.

Facing the falling milk prices, German dairy farmers will receive an emergency aid worth at least 100 million euros, said Schmidt after a meeting with representatives of German farmers, dairies and trade.

"We all agree that we must on the one hand come to structural improvements and on the other hand to the assistance of farmers with short-term financial support," he said.

According to Schmidt, the emergency aid package includes livelihood assistance, tax relief from income smoothing and exemption regulations for debt repayment.

Currently, German dairy farmers receive only about 20 cents per liter of milk, which is far from sufficient to cover the cost. The ongoing milk price decline is mainly due to large volumes of milk in the markets.