Kategorie: News

The Belgian biggest dairy cooperative Milcobel rejects from April 5 until July 1, 2021 announcement of withdrawing members. This means that members instead of leaving the cooperative in August 2021 can leave at the earliest in April 2022. This to keep the supply, production capacity and demand in balance, according to Milcobel.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina proposes a new member financing. At the heart of the proposal is the linking of a significant part of the members’ capital to their milk deliveries and a cooperative solution for the tradability of free member bonds. The cooperative proposes to issue eight euro worth of supply certificates per 100 kilogram of milk delivered to its member dairy farmers. Members who have less than eight euro per 100 kilogram of milk in fixed member bonds and/or member certificates will be allowed to ‘bed in’ over a period of ten years by means of a loan provided by the cooperative. In connection with the introduction of delivery certificates, the cooperative proposes to adjust the company’s retained earnings policy as well. The current retained earnings policy consists of a supplementary cash payment of 35 percent of the profit, 10 percent in member bonds and to add 55 percent to the retained earnings. The provisional proposal is to pay out 40 percent of the profit over the financial years 2021 and 2022 as a supplementary cash payment and to add 60 percent to the retained earnings. The new member financing system is necessary to ensure the future tradability of member bonds free, to reduce the imbalances in members’ capital commitment and to strengthen the company’s equity, according to RFC.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina and the Arabian Food industries Company (Domty) have signed a joint venture agreement that will focus on the export of cheese to Africa and the Middle East. Arabian Food Industries is one of the biggest cheese manufacturers in Egypt, with its market leader cheese brand Domty. Established in 1989, it now has a total turnover of over 100 million euro, in white cheese (feta type), mozzarella, cream cheese, aside from fruit juices and bakery products. Through the years, it has been expanded its market reach within Egypt and its export operations in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Royal FrieslandCampina’s brands, Frico and Kroon, have been market leaders in hard/semi-hard cheese in several North African countries for decades. The cooperation with Domty will allow FrieslandCampina to enter bigger, more affordable and faster-growing cheese categories and better serve consumers across their breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacking occasions, according Royal FrieslandCampina. Royal FrieslandCampina will hold a 51 per cent interest in the joint venture and Domty, 49 per cent.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina has got a loan from the Holland headquartered ING Bank N.V. for a new 300 million euro sustainability-linked loan. The new three year loan carries a variable interest rate based on EURIBOR, and an interest rate discount if ambitious sustainability performance targets are met. They include: a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in its worldwide production and transport network, a decrease of greenhouse gas emissions on the dairy farms of its member farmers and increasing traceability to source key raw materials such as palm oil, soy, pulp & paper and cocoa.

In Holland milk collection from several dairy farms has temporary been blocked after it was found that a corn based feed compound was contaminated with aflatoxin. At the end of about ten farms the milk has been destroyed.

In Holland in 2020 had 80 percent of the dairy farms a manure surplus and had to remove manure away from the farm according the obliged standard for using manure on land.

In Holland a desk study of Alfa Accountants with 800 dairy farms shows that farms with the highest feed efficiency have the lowest CO2 emission per kilogram milk. The 25 percent farms with the highest feed efficiency of 1.29 kilogram dry matter per kilogram milk had an CO2 emission of 1205 CO2 equivalents per 100 kilogram milk. The 25 percent farms with the lowest feed efficiency of 1.00 kilogram dry matter per kilogram milk had an CO2 emission of 1422 CO2 equivalents per 100 kilogram milk.

Ireland fulfils the requirements to be recognised as having a negligible risk for BSE. The World Health Organisation (OIE) has revealed that its Scientific Commission for Animal Disease has concluded this. The OIE’s Scientific Commission has recommended this recognition be submitted for endorsement by the OIE World Assembly of Delegates at the 88th General Session in May 2021.

In Ireland the biggest dairy cooperative Glanbia has announced a mechanism to manage the rate of growth in peak milk supplies in April, May and June from 2022. The base will be calculated on each supplier’s highest total volume over the peak supply months of 2018, 2019 or 2020. There is no restriction on growth in milk supply volumes outside of this three peak months. Under the peak supply management policy farms with an annual milk supply of less than 400000 litres may grow peak volumes by ten percent over their base. Farms with annual milk supply of between 400000 and 550000 litres in the base period may grow their volumes over the peak supply months by five percent per year over their base. Farms with annual milk supply of over 550000 litres may grow their volumes over the peak supply months by 2.5 percent per year over their base. Growth for recent entrants (less than three years) will be facilitated up to the 550000 litres threshold, after which point they align to a compound growth rate of 2.5 percent on peak months. For expanding suppliers, all milk volumes supplied above the allocated peak volume over the Peak Supply Months will incur a milk price deduction of 30 percent of the prevailing milk price each month, or the cost associated with the disposal of the milk, whichever is higher. A Voluntary Reduction Scheme will allow suppliers to voluntarily commit to reducing peak milk supplies by a minimum of 10% based on their 2020 supply volumes for a three year term achieve a payment of 10 eurocents per litre for the peak volumes not supplied.

In Estonia according to the Estonian Farm Animal Performance Control AS (EPJ), in 2020 the average milk production of recorded cows was 10400 kg milk. Compared to 2019, milk production increased 286 kg. As of 01.01.2021, there were 435 recorded herds and 81025 recorded cows, which represents 96.1 percent of the Estonian cows. The average milk yield of the Estonian Holstein breed was 10677 kilogram milk and of the Estonian red breed was 9131 kg. The average milk production of the Estonian country breed was 4690 kg.

In Finland the biggest dairy cooperative Valio reduced in 2020 the plastic content of its product packaging by an amount equivalent to 23 million plastic shopping bags.

In Finland ultimo 2020 organic dairy farms accounted for 3 percent of all dairy farms (2019: 3%). In organic farms the average cell and bacterial counts were slightly higher than on non-organic farms. The difference is explained by the larger-than-average size of organic farms.

In Finland ultimo 2020, automatic milking farms accounted for 21 percent (2019: 20%) of all dairy farms. On automatic milking farms both cell and bacterial counts in milk were higher on average than on farms using traditional milking. In 2020 the geometric mean of cell counts in automated milking farms was 168000 cells/ml and the geometric mean of bacterial counts was 8100 cfu/ml. The size of the farm partly explains the differences between the cell numbers of automatic and traditional milking, but the differences in bacterial counts are bigger in automatic milking farms regardless of farm size.

In Finland the share of the best quality class E milk in 2020 was 96.9 percent (2019: 97.4%). The national geometric mean of the cell counts in the milk samples was 132000 cells/ml (2019: 129000 cells/ml) and the arithmetic mean was 152000 cells/ml (2019: 148000 cells/ml). The geometric mean of bacterial counts was 5900 colony forming units cfu/ml (2019: 5900 cfu/ml) and the arithmetic mean was 9500 cfu/ml (2019: 9700 cfu/ml).

In the EU (without Great Britain) in 2020 the volume of raw milk supply was 1.6 percent more than in 2019. The biggest increase was in Italy (+3.5%), Ireland (+4.6%) and Poland (+1.2%), the biggest decrease was in France (-1.4%), Germany (-1.1%), Austria (-2.1%) and Holland (-0.4%).

The EU and the USA have agreed to postpone for a period of four months the import duties on European dairy products and American dairy products after the USA Trump government started with extra import duties on EU dairy products because of the EU gives subsidies to Airbus and the USA gives to Boeing. The purpose of the postpone is that the EU and the USA can make new agreements about trade and subsidies.

In Germany in February compared to January 2021 the raw material or compound value of milk at farm increased 1.6 eurocent to 32.9 eurocent per kilogram milk with 4.0 percent fat and 3.4 percent protein (exclusive VAT). This is 2.6 eurocent less than in the same month last year.
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 40.8 eurocent. The lowest future price is the price for March 2021 at 36.4 eurocent.

In Germany in 2020 was 3.9 percent of the delivered milk of organic origin, in 2019 this was 3.7 percent. In 2020 was 9.8 percent of the consumed milk of organic origin. In 2019 this was 8.5 percent. Of the in 2020 consumed cheese 2.6 percent was organic (2019: 2.3%); of the consumed butter was in 2020 2.9 percent organic (2019: 2.8%)

German exported in 2020 a volume of 1.3 million tonnes cheese which was 2.7 percent more than in 2019. Of the total export 1.08 million tonnes was exported to other EU-countries. This volume increased 1.67 percent. Export to non-EU countries increased 8.5 percent to 222000 tonnes. Of this went 27000 tonnes to Japan, an increase of 27 percent. Export of butter to other EU countries was in 2020 about the same as in 2019 but export to non-EU countries fell 20 percent. Butter export fell most to the United Arab Emirates (from 6000 to 675 tonnes), to Japan (from 2000 to 530 tonnes) and to the USA (from 1000 to 500 tonnes). Export of skimmed milk powder (smk) fell 10 percent to 368000 tonnes.

The France headquartered private dairy Danone is preparing to sell its 9.8 percent ownership of Mengniu, one of the biggest Chinese dairies. Danone’s stake in Mengniu’s share capital currently represents a book value of approximately 850 million euro.