Amsterdam, May 29 - Dutch dairy farmers have stopped delivering milk to dairy companies to protest against low wholesale milk purchasing prices, the Dutch Dairymen Board said on Thursday, echoing similar action by farmers in Germany.
The board, which has about 4,500 members and provides 30 percent of the Netherlands' milk production, said it launched its boycott on Tuesday when farmers blocked a factory owned by dairy group Friesland.
"We sprayed milk over the fields on Wednesday so people can see we get too little for our milk and now we are blocking a factory in the north of the country," the board's deputy chairman Geert Kroes told Reuters.
He said farmers were being squeezed by high production costs estimated at around 45 eurocents per kg, well above milk prices at around 30-35 eurocents a kg.
The protest would last another five to six days, Kroes said.
Friesland, one of the board's biggest clients, said production has not been affected by the boycott as only about one hundred of its 9,400 farmers had stopped delivering milk.
The protesting farmers account for 165,000 kg of milk out of Friesland's daily milk production of 50 million kg, a spokesman said.
"We are not negotiating with the farmers over milk prices. Prices are set by the market. Demand and supply is reflected in the milk prices, this is a worldwide situation," he said.
Campina, the board's other big clients, was not immediately available for comment.
Low milk prices have also prompted German dairy farmers to boycott dairies for an unlimited period, the country's dairy farmers association said on Wednesday.
German milk prices have been under pressure since April when the European Union raised its production quota limits by 2 percent.
The EU uses the system, scheduled to be abolished in 2015, to stop over-production of subsidised milk and milk products.