Kategorie: News

In Holland in 2021 of the consumed dairy products 18 percent was labelled as durable, for example organic, or labelled for higher standards for animal welfare or nature and environment. This was in value 12 percent more than in 2020.

In Holland Wageningen University & Research will in a four year project work on producing milk without cows. Also the Dutch universities of Maastricht and Utrecht and some start-up companies producing cell-based proteins will be involved. The project focuses on milk proteins, which are produced by cells. The consortium will explore three ways of making cell-based proteins. In the first instance, the use of cell lines that work in a similar way to cow udders. These cells can produce whole milk. Second, the use of genetically modified microbes that produce one specific milk protein. The third line of research is using microbial proteins as they are, without genetic modification.

In the United Kingdom in the first half of 2022 was 1.9 percent less milk delivered to processors than in the same period one year before. In the same period the UK imported 31 percent more raw milk and 11 percent more dairy products.

In Ireland, one third of adults consume plant-based dairy substitutes. Most of them (70%) consume plant-based dairy substitutes on a weekly basis, but ten percent say they never consume real dairy products.

In Ireland in 2021 average dairy family farm income was 98745 euro, which was 25 percent more than in 2020. Average dairy farm had 92 cows and produced 12155 litre milk per hectare.

In Denmark the smallest dairy cooperative Andelsmejeri has after more than 130 years closed its doors. The cooperative had four members that on annual base supplied around 4.2 million litre milk which was processed into cheese. The strong increased energy prices which could not be passed on in higher selling prices so the farmers milk price became much lower than that one of other dairies.

In Denmark the dairy cooperative Arla and Eurowind Energy have entered into a ten year power purchase agreement, to ensure that Arla reaches its target of 100 percent green electricity in Denmark by 2025. The electricity will come from a unsubsidised Danish wind farm which will deliver 137 GW/h electricity.

The Denmark headquartered dairy cooperative Arla has bought back from the Chinese company Yashili the business for Arla‘s three infant milk formula brands in China. This at a price of 15 million euro. The deal includes sales, marketing, distribution and a team of more than 80 employees from Yashili moving to Arla. Arla sees the acquisition as a great opportunity to build on an already strong brand proposition and expand its presence in a growing category. Arla aims to double its early life nutrition business in China within the next five years. Yashili has been selling Arla’s infant milk formula products under a distribution agreement since 2016 but as part of a bigger brand portfolio. The parties have agreed that a restructure is mutually beneficial allowing Yashili to focus on their remaining portfolio and Arla to invest resources solely dedicated to their own brands.

The Denmark headquartered dairy cooperative Arla introduces a sustainability incentive to its farmer owners to help fund and motivate actions required to hit the 2030 emission reduction target on farm. Arla earmarks up to three eurocent per kilo of milk for sustainability activities in addition to the existing one eurocent for submitting Climate Check data. From next year, the milk price that the individual Arla farmer will receive from the dairy cooperative will depend on his or her activities related to environmental sustainability.

In Finland the Pellervo Economic Research institute forecasts that price spikes in fertilizers and energy in Finland will lower during 2023. The price of electricity has been on a strong rise since spring 2022, which has in particular dairy farms hit hard. The costs have been partly compensated by increased milk producer prices, but the acute cost crisis continues, which increases liquidity problems. Consumer prices of dairy products are estimated to rise by more than 20 percent till the end of the year.

In Finland is organization Milkenture Oy founded and by the Finnish Food Authority recognized as the first producer organization in the dairy industry. A producer organization is formed by producers. Its goal is to strengthen the position of producers in the market. The producer organization can negotiate on the market on behalf of its members about price. It is also possible for members to agree on production quantities and optimize production.

In Sweden DeLaval, which offers milking equipment and services, is building a new barn on the Hamra research farm. With the investment, the number of cows on the farm will double to 500 cows. The new barn will be completed in early 2024.

In Sweden in the milk year from September 2021 until August 2022 average milk production per cow was 10419 kilograms or 10917 kilogram ECM (ECM: energy-corrected milk, taking into account the fat and protein content.) This is less than the annual results from the previous year 2020/21 that showed the average yield of 10521 kg milk or 11009 kg ECM. Average production of the main breed Holstein Friesian which has a share of almost 60 percent of the Swedish dairy herd was 11367 kilogram ECM, average production of the Swedish Red Breed which has a share or more than 30 percent was 10445 kilogram ECM. In the same period the number of cows per farm increased from 97 to 99 head, but the total number of cows decreased 5.5 percent because more than seven percent of the farms stopped milking.

Rabobank’s annual ranking of Global Dairy Top 20 companies shows that the combined turnover of the top 20 companies jumped by 9.3 percent in US dollar terms, following the prior year’s decline of 0.1 percent. In euro terms, the combined turnover increased by 5.0 percent. Strategic repositioning and merge and acquisitions activities, for example, resulted in the entry of Froneri and the departure of Kraft Heinz in the ranking. The second half of the leader board remains crowded with less financial separation between the companies. In 2020, eight companies in the second half of the table were separated by less than USD 1.0 billion. This year, four companies are within USD 0.15 billion in sales. With numerous product launches, dairy alternatives, ranging from beverages, yogurts, frozen desserts, cheese, and hybrid products, have become more common in the product portfolio of the Top 20 companies, making it more difficult to extract pure dairy revenues. As a result, the designation of dairy is also becoming much more blurred. Dairy cooperatives were passed by private companies. The four global cooperative giants are bunched in the sub-top of this year’s ranking. Each is facing some degree of limitation for organic growth in their domestic market. Gradually, more dairy companies are aligning their climate ambitions with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). To date, eight of the Top 20 companies have made a public commitment to (some of) the SBTi targets or have targets that are considered aligned with SBTi. Dairy companies are working on their climate and sustainability targets for 2030, but also adding net-zero ambitions for 2050.

The Austrian dairy cooperative Gmundner Molkerei and the German family business Milchwerk Jäger in Bavaria want to merge. The members of the dairy cooperative Gmunden voted in favour of the merger. The Gmunden cooperative becomes a private company of which Jäger takes over the shares. Together they have 800 employees who process 800 million litres of raw milk from about 3000 dairy farms.

In Germany in August compared to July 2022 the raw material or compound value of milk at farm decreased 4.4 eurocent to 59.4 eurocent per kilogram milk with 4.0 percent fat and 3.4 percent protein (exclusive VAT). This is 22.9 eurocent more than in the same month one year before. The highest future price of milk for the next 18 months on the Kieler Börsenmilchwert European Energy Exchange is the price for September 2022 at 60.8 eurocent. The lowest future price is the price for March 2024 at 55.8 eurocent.

The German federal state of Lower Saxony will pay conventional dairy farmers who let their cows graze a premium of 75 euros per cow per year. Organic dairy farmers already have to let their cows graze, but receive a premium of 51 euros per cow per hectare. Farmers must let the cows graze for at least six hours a day from May 16 to September 15.

The Germany headquartered and biggest German dairy cooperative DMK already launched vegan desserts and a vegan cocoa drink on supermarket shelves under the Milram brand in the first quarter of 2022. Now DMK is introducing vegan cheese.

Belgian dairy farmers in the northern province Antwerpen are welcome to supply their milk to Holland. The Dutch milk powder manufacturer Vreugdenhil Dairy Foods is looking for dairy farmers in Belgium as supplier. Vreugdenhil now processes in Holland 1.4 billion kilograms of milk annually, of which almost 800 million kilograms are supplied by 850 Dutch dairy farmers.

The Dutch dairy industry has developed a new quality assurance scheme “Dairy product from Dutch milk”. It appears that foreign dairy producers are increasingly benefiting from the good quality image of the Dutch dairy sector. It sometimes happens that foreign milk or dairy products are exported to the Netherlands, repackaged or processed in order to eventually be marketed as a Dutch product, according to the Dutch Dairy Organization. The assurance takes place in the entire chain, from the Dutch dairy farm, milk transport, suppliers, production to the end product. The schedule focuses on cow milk only. The product is a dairy product or a composite product of which at least 10 percent of the dry matter consists of dairy ingredients; and the product is intended for human consumption. The preparation of the “Dairy product from Dutch milk” takes place entirely by accredited dairy producers and processors established in the Netherlands. Only the packaging of the end product may be carried out by companies established abroad.