European experience points to need for suppliers to add value, diversify The blockade by angry French dairy farmers of the Lactalis HQ at Laval carries a strong message for their New Zealand counterparts similarly dismayed by their returns, though not possessed of the Latin temperament required to man the barricades. The lesson centres on the wisdom of signing up for a fixed volume and price contract which is the issue underpinning the Lactalis ructions, writes our European Correspondent. The problem is that the dairy farmer cannot recover fixed costs by supplying milk at any price. In contrast a cooperative, Fonterra…