October 9, 2009

FrieslandCampina will be launching a new quality system for its member dairy farmers on January 1, 2010, offering transparency on standards and rules on milk quality and business operations.

The new forward-looking quality system is aimed at the members in the Netherlands; for the member dairy farmers in Germany and Belgium, FrieslandCampina will be tying in with equivalent national systems, such as QM-Milch and IKM.

Atze Schaap, director of Co-operative Affairs at FrieslandCampina, said the company will only make the most essential changes, which stem from the merger, from amended legislation or programmes that are already up and running.

Standards and regulations apply to each of the quality areas of 'milk', 'cow', 'production process' and 'environment'. Examples include the quality aspects of the milk supplied, the operation and design of milking equipment, the health of the cows and the quality of water and feed.

FrieslandCampina's voluntary outdoor grazing programme will also be incorporated into the quality system from January 1, 2010. The system will also comprise of four categories - "Excellent", "Good", "Occasionally poor", "Consistently poor" - to determine milk quality and business performance.

In addition, under the theme 'production process', the external testing of insurance policies of animal feed businesses will become the standard for all members in the Netherlands.

From 2010, member dairy farmers will only be allowed to buy feed from suppliers that appear on FrieslandCampina's list. Companies on this list have had their insurance policy checked and approved by an independent expert. Without imposing an administrative burden on the dairy farmer, this provides a guarantee of liability if a disaster should occur with feed contamination. Former Campina already operated this system. As a result, members of the former Friesland Foods will no longer be required to enter into a contract with each feed supplier.