date:Aug 29, 2014
prices of commodities such as foil cheese, butter and milk powder were too low to offset the high guaranteed price for the member dairy farmers. On top of that, difficult market conditions in Asia and Europe plus negative currency translation effects amounting to 59 million euro put volumes and margins under pressure. Operating costs in the first half of 2014 rose by 5.5 percent to 5,544 million euro due to higher raw materials and packaging materials costs (first half of 2013: 5,253 million eur