Hamburg, June 3 - Thousands of striking German dairy farmers started on Tuesday to relax their blockades of dairies staged as part of a week-long protest at low milk prices which has caused regional milk shortages.
German dairy farmers' association BDM said it had asked farmers to withdraw from the dairies but that a week-long boycott of new milk deliveries would continue.
Dairy farmers in Germany and other European Union countries including Belgium and the Netherlands Latvia have organised a series of protests at falling milk prices in the last week.
German farmers have been refusing to deliver milk to dairies for seven days and over half of the country's 100 large dairies were blockaded by tractors and other vehicles, action which drew sharp criticism from German politicians as illegal.
Several dairies also said on Tuesday they would take legal action to remove tractor blockades which had stopped farmers not participating in the strike from delivering milk.
BDM chairman Romuald Schaber said the blockades would be relaxed and the delivery boycott continued while renewed talks with the milk industry association were sought.
"The farmers are determined to continue their action until they achieve success," he said.
German and other EU milk prices have fallen sharply since April, when the European Union raised its production quota limits largely to calm the milk market which had seen prices shot up EU-wide since June 2007.
German supermarkets said milk supplies generally remained sufficient although milk was running out in some areas.
A spokesman for the Real supermarket chain, owned by the Metro group, said it had some supply gaps in some stores but that milk deliveries were generally still good.