The heads of the farm lobbies in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia & Finland have said that Phil Hogan must assist dairy farms in their countries hit particularly hard by Russia’s ban on EU food imports.

They are warning that failure to act would see farms forced out of business.

The group, backed by their respective governments are calling for a dairy package after signals had been given by outgoing commissioner Ciolos that he was considering such a move.

The leaders claim that in these countries dairy income levels for the last two & a half months well below the actual production cost and that their position is unsustainable.