The grim battle for survival facing France's dairy farmers

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After a bitter dispute lasting more than a week, the giant French dairy group Lactalis has finally agreed to pay its dairy farmers higher prices for their milk. However, the anger of the protests has once again highlighted the desperate plight of many dairy farmers in France. As Laurent Geslin reports, an entire way of life is in danger of disappearing as smaller-scale farmers find it increasingly hard to make a living.

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A protest by French dairy farmers angry at how much they are being paid for their milk has ended – for now at least - after the giant dairy firm Lactalis agreed to raise its prices. The company, the largest dairy products group in the world, says it will pay farmers an average of 290 euros per tonne of milk between now and the end of the year, in contrast with the 256.90 euros a tonne it paid in July.

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