This decision is intended to relieve farmers in the Old Continent after the fall in milk prices caused by the closure of places de  consumption such as restaurants and canteens at the precise moment when spring dairy overproduction was exploding.

"We are concerned that this milk will be destocked in Wwish Africa" at prices  de dumping as de powders  de re-fattened skim milk, said Hindatou Amadou, spokesperson de  APESS and coordinator de the West African campaign "my milk is local", during a recent round table on the subject.

Start of May, a dozen peasant associations and de solidarity, including Oxfam or  CCFD Terre solidaire, had already warned about a risk  de "severe crisis", while West Africa would like to focus in particular on the sector de livestock to support employment, fight undernourishment, contain emigration and ultimately fight violence.

In 2015, powders de European skimmed milk, re-fattened with vegetable fats , were broadcast at 54% in Afrique , confirms a publication de  the European Commission.

The practice developed in 2017-18, thanks <span class="dj_article_highlight" style="background-color: rgb(255, 228, 0); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important;">de  the surge in butter prices on world markets. "With milk fats, a number of industrialists produced butter which they sold at de very good prices, and the remaining skimmed-milk powder was then re-fattened with  de oil de  palm and sold in emerging countries at lower prices than their local milk," a French industrial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Under the guise of helping developing countries to feed their populations at affordable prices, European dairy manufacturers are therefore participating in this vast trade that strongly "destabilizes" "local farmers", confirms this source.

First row are Irish bands (22% of sales de powders  de re-fattened milk made of Afrique in 2015, according to the GIRA European report de 2017), then Dutch (15%), Belgian (10%), Polish (5%), German (4%) and French (4%).

- Creating a customs code -

The volumes concerned are difficult to quantify precisely, as these products are not identified by customs.

Under the influence of NGOs, a customs code allowing de draw them comes from elsewhere  de been available since 1 January (CN 1901 90 95).

"Overall, these imports still have a huge influence", notes Gilles Vias, de  the NGO Vétérinaires sans frontières. "In units de industrial processing of milk into Westafrica , we are at 5% de local milk and 95% de  imported milk (in the form de powder, Editor's note) processed into dairy products", according to him.

It requests either an increase in duties de customs, currently at 5%, i.e. a "tap" policy, which would stop the imports at the time local milk is available, particularly in micro-dairies in the Sahel which depend on de non-sedentary, very fragile herds.

The subject is all the more important as the Sahel countries are de very large consumers  de milk, but also producers thanks to their extensive and transhumant herds. Mali, Niger and Mauritania produce 76% of the local milk of West Africa, according to Vias.

Interspected, some European manufacturers are just beginning to react by accompanying local production.

Arla Foods (Denmark) has entered into a partnership with the Ministry  de Nigeria Agriculture. The Dutch cooperative Friesland Campina has also invested in the development de milk drinks from  de local milk.

The French fund Amundi Finance et Solidarité increased its investments in May in "la laiterie du berger" in Séné gal to enable it to increase its production. This dairy, of which Danone is one of the financial partners, collects milk from Fulani farmers in northern Senegal, and ensures its processing and distribution.