Steep drop in milk prices a huge blow to dairy farmers

The future looks very bleak next year

Nine out of ten Danish dairy farmers will not earn enough to be able to pay themselves a salary next year, Børsen reports.

Due to global over-production, mainly in China and Russia, the price of dairy products has plummeted, leaving farmers to face significant ramifications.

Already bad is getting even worse
Danish dairy farmers can expect a further fall in the price of milk, from 3 kroner per litre to just 2.65 kroner next year. 

For a typical farmer, this decrease is the equivalent of a revenue loss of three quarters of a million kroner. 

Already now, Danish diary farmers are among the world's most indebted with a total debt of 370 billion kroner. 

Up to knees in debt
This downturn is only going to make matters worse.

"If it's really going to happen, then at least 90 percent of the 3,500 professional dairy farmers won't get enough out of their operations to pay themselves a salary," Kjartan Poulsen, the chairman of the Danish association of dairy farmers, worries. 

"Moreover, about 50 to 60 percent of them will sink deeper into debt," Poulsen told the newspaper.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.