Sardinian shepherds are worried and once again on the warpath after the first contracts signed with industrialists for the advance payment of sheep's milk.

Six years after the street protests, when the product was dumped in the countryside and on the roads because it was considered unprofitable at the time, today the voice of sheep farmers is being heard again.

The first contracts, in fact, record a cut of 10 cents compared to the previous award campaign and even 20 cents compared to 2023-2024.

«   Currently, the advance payment on Pecorino Romano deliveries for the industrial portion is around 1.40 euros, while last year, still declining, it reached 1.50, without any adjustment and therefore it remained at that figure," Nenneddu Sanna, one of the shepherds' historic spokespersons during the protest over the price of milk in February 2019, explained to ANSA. "We need those extra 10 cents because we use them to cover the production costs, which have increased."

In recent days, producers received a letter from the Pecorino Romano Protection Consortium, signed by President Gianni Maoddi. "This letter is certainly commendable when it comes to avoiding underselling the product to maintain a fair market price," Sanna adds, "but what we producers care about, and what we're asking for, is a fair price for our product: milk."

(Unioneonline)