Dairy News
Westcountry farmers flock to sign up to growing dairy firm
Wednesday, 15/01/14
In what the company describes as an encouraging start to the year, 1,250 farmers based in the South West have joined and become co-owners of Arla Foods, the UK’s largest dairy company and the sixth largest dairy cooperative in the world.
The cooperative processes 3.2 billion litres of milk a year and is home to some of the UK’s leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak, Castello, Lactofree and Anchor.
The total of 2,800 British farmer-owners supply 95% of Arla’s UK milk pool and are part of the European network of 13,500 farmer-owners across Denmark, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden.
The South West, which is home to numerous Arla sites, including Westbury Dairies and Taw Valley Creamery, is Arla’s busiest UK region and now represents over a third of Arla’s total UK farmer- owners.
Jonathan Ovens, AMCo chairman and British farmer director of Arla Foods amba, said: “We have been working towards becoming co-owners of Arla Foods amba for the past ten years and we have now realised our vision.
“Arla is committed to delivering a sustainable future for its farmers and by taking the ownership route, we are receiving the leading UK milk price,” he continued.
Johnnie Russell, another British farmer-director of Arla Foods amba and AML chairman, said that it is essential that farmers are able to benefit from growing international markets, such as China, which are providing new export opportunities and a broader marketplace for milk products.
“The price a farmer receives for his milk today is crucial, however, with quota abolition next year, this is likely to result in a huge upsurge in European milk production,” said Mr Russell.
“Arla is the only UK business that has a strategy in place whereby we can access world markets to tap into a broader marketplace for our products, which in turn deliver a higher return. The inclusion of Westbury skimmed milk powder on the GDT auction is just one example of this,” he continued.
Arla’s brands can be found across the dairy category and the company has a 26% share of the GB milk pool.
Ash Amirahmadi, head of milk and member services at Arla Foods, said that one of the key strategic objectives that has been achieved was to secure the milk supply.
“Not only have we seen 85% of AFMP members sign up to become owners of the European dairy cooperative, we have also recruited a further 230 million litres of new milk into the cooperative as a result of the initiative.
“This is a hugely positive step and reflects the strength of the Arla Foods amba offering,” said Mr Amirahmadi.
Arla is looking to further expand its UK milk pool and, as a result, the Arla Foods amba farmer board has agreed to re-open recruitment to secure a further 300 million litres of milk in 2014, in addition to the three billion litres already supplied by UK farmer-owners.
Mansel Raymond, chairman of the National Farmers Union dairy board, added: “For years UK farmers have looked on enviously at the apparent disparity between this country and mainland European milk prices.
“It’s good news that Arla has reopened its recruitment window so that British dairy farmers who wish to join Europe’s largest dairy co-operative will have the opportunity to be part of this successful business,” said Mr Raymond.