Farmers dump 500,000 litres of milk in Netherlands

The Hague — Dozens of Dutch and German tractors dumped 500,000 litres of milk Monday in the Netherlands as part of European protests against low prices, a Dutch milk producers body said.

"It costs more to produce the milk than we earn selling it," Geert Kroes, a spokesman for the Dutch Dairymen Board, which claims to represent about 4,000 of some 20,000 Dutch dairy farmers, told AFP by phone.

The action in a field in Winterswijk near the Dutch-German border formed part of European-wide protests held Monday in which some 40 million litres of milk were poured away by producers who claim they face financial ruin.

According to the European Milk Board, milk prices in some countries have more than halved since 2007.

AFP/Expatica