Farmers threaten to stop supplying milk in protest at dairy reform |
Dairy farmers on Sunday night threatened to stop supplying milk later this week as tensions over a government dairy reform plan ratchet up, prompting Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to brand them as “communists.”
The farmers argue that the reform is being rushed and will cause them to lose their livelihoods.
As part of a broader plan to lower the cost of living, the finance minister wants to disband the centralized coordination mechanism that has characterized the dairy industry since the state’s founding.
Smotrich plans to slash milk production in Israel by a third, cut the price per liter by 15 percent, and abolish tariffs of up to 40% to flood the Israeli market with imported dairy products. The government approved his plan in December.
“As long as the dairy industry is run like a communist one, such threats sound serious. [When there is] real competition, they will be a joke. Until the reform is passed, the joke is at the expense of the welfare........