The Seimas committee plans to revisit the Milk Act in the autumn and proposes that it come into force in March next year

With the Seimas set to hold its final vote on the so-called Milk Act, which aims to ensure fairer relations between milk producers and processors, the Rural Affairs Committee is proposing a later date of entry into force than that agreed during the debate.

On Friday, the committee decided that the changes should come into force on 1 March 2027, rather than in January.

In the meantime, it is expected that the committee will draft amendments to improve the law – to ensure fairer agreements with retailers and a ban on paying farmers less than the average cost price, calculated in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Minister of Agriculture, for the milk purchased from them.

Some MPs argued that this provision would ensure that milk purchase prices would not fall below the cost of milk production, but the committee decided to postpone its analysis of the proposal until the autumn.

“We are seeing signs that this (the proposal on determining production costs – BNS) could breach European Union regulations and bring the entire project to a halt,” – said Kęstutis Mažeika, the designated Minister for Agriculture, in the committee.

Meanwhile, Social Democrat Arūnas Dudėnas argued that milk producers, processors and retailers should all be given an equal opportunity to profit from milk production – from the final price – 33 per cent each.

“By including retailers and dividing the proceeds fairly – 33 per cent for everyone from the final retail price – there would be no need to analyse production costs,” he said.

At that point, Liberal MP Viktoras Pranckietis asked which institution would calculate the average cost of milk production on a farm.

“Here’s an analogy: today you’ve had a meal, I haven’t, but on average we’ve both had a bite to eat. We shouldn’t be talking about average calculations. There should be proper accounting on farms to ensure that production costs are calculated,” said V. Pranckietis.

The Seimas will vote on the so-called Milk Act next Tuesday.