PARIS (Reuters) - France wants new “market regulation measures” to help farmers hurt by low milk and pork prices and has submitted proposals ahead of a meeting of European Union agriculture ministers later this month, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday.

A French livestock farmer watches as a lorry leaves after its contents were inspected at a roadblock near a toll booth on the autoroute in Ancenis, western France, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

The government called on the European Commission to do more to help its struggling livestock sector, seeking to defuse protests in which farmers have blocked highways and supermarkets.

Prices for milk and pork have fallen below the cost of production for many European Union farmers as a Russian embargo on Western food has caused oversupply, and France says 35,000 of its livestock farms are at risk of going bankrupt.

The French government has offered hundreds of millions of euros in aid to livestock farmers since last summer. But with no sign of an upturn in market conditions, farmers have renewed street protests since the start of the year.

Speaking after a meeting with supermarket retailers about the farming situation, Valls said the Commission had so far “done too little, too late”, and France had suggested steps to bolster the market ahead of the EU farm ministers meeting.

Asked about Valls’ remarks, a Commission spokesman cited a 500 million euros ($556 million) aid package granted last year and urged EU countries to make full use of it.

In the dairy sector, French proposals include an increase in the floor price at which producers can sell into public storage, an export credit facility, and aid for farmers who cut output when prices fall, a memorandum submitted by France to the Commission and seen by Reuters showed.

France also called for a concerted effort to get Russia to lift a sanitary embargo on EU pork - which pre-dated a broad ban on Western food imposed in August 2014, the document showed.

Valls said he would raise the issue with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting in Germany on Saturday.

The Commission, which manages the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, rejected last year the idea of raising dairy intervention prices or regulating volumes, defending a market reform that saw production quotas abolished last April.

Within France, the government is discussing potential measures with supermarket chains, frequently targeted in protests by farmers who blame them for pushing down prices.

Discussions with retailers will continue this week about a special fund for pig farmers, Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said after the meeting.

Monday’s gathering also looked at the possibility of changing French legislation to include farmers in annual price negotiations between food retailers and manufacturers, in order to ensure farmer production costs were taken into account, officials and retailers said.

The idea of maintaining milk prices at 2015 levels was also discussed as a way to give short-term relief to dairy farmers.