About 300 disgruntled dairy farmers arrived near St. Mark's square in Zagreb, where the government is located, on Friday afternoon to protest peacefully and wait for Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic to receive them.
They were stopped from entering the square by police.
The head of a negotiating team of the HSUPM national federation of dairy farmers' associations, Darko Pavicevic, said they had come spontaneously and wanted to see Milanovic.
Dairy farmers have been protesting for 11 days, organised by the HSUPM, because they are dissatisfied with the purchase price of HRK 2.30 per kilo of milk which the Dukat dairy company proposed in late January.
Pavicevic said the protesters represented 80 per cent of all dairy farmers and that their demand was HRK 3.30 plus an incentive of HRK 0.50 per litre, adding that anything less constituted a loss.
He said he would initiate talks with Dukat and that if the company did not agree to their price, the disgruntled farmers would stop supplying it with milk as of Monday.
According to police, the protest near St. Mark's Square was peaceful.
The HSUPM did not agree to a deal which some dairy farmers' associations reached with the dairy companies late last night. Under the agreement, the purchase price of milk will be HRK 2.43 per litre and be in force for three months.
HSUPM leaders reiterated today that they would keep on protesting until their demands were met and that last night's agreement was contentious.
