Organic dairy farmers are taking to the streets today in protest at the ongoing price war with retailers

Milk producers face serious consequences when shops cut costs and sell milk at a loss, says the National Organic Association.

‘When organic milk is sold below cost price it means less organic farming, fewer organic products on the shelves for the consumers and less consideration for nature and the environment. We all pay a high price for cheap organic milk,’ said Evald Vestergaard, chairman of the association.

Milk prices have dropped rapidly in recent years. A litre of milk has for the last 20 years cost on average between 6 and 7 kroner, according to Statistics Denmark.

Shops starting slashing prices in 2004, while discount chain Lidl recently began selling milk at an average litre price of 2.66 kroner, down from the previous national low of between 3 and 3.5 kroner per litre.

Dairy farmers are extremely concerned that more organic farms will close as a result of the low prices and said the difference between the low cost prices and a fair price that would allow them to stay in business was 2 kroner per litre, or 200 kroner annually for the average consumer.

The association said organic product sales had doubled in the last four years, which showed consumers were willing to pay more to buy organic.

Vestergaard said that they were now appealing directly to the public in a bid to stop the retailers cutting prices further and would be handing out free cartons of organic milk to the public in Denmark’s four largest cities today.

Organic farmers will be handing out the milk between 11am and 1pm at Amagertorv Square in Copenhagen, Skt. Knuds Torv Square in Århus, outside City Hall in Odense and at Nytorv Square in Aalborg.