January 7, 2014

Arla Foods adds 1,300 UK farmers as co-owners

Dairy cooperative Arla Foods announced that it has added 1,300 UK farmers as owners of the business taking the total to 2,800 as demand for milk in Africa and China grow.

The influx of farmer-owners comes ahead of an end to EU production quotas in 2015, which will give farmers greater access to growing markets in China, Africa and the Middle East.

The company's head of milk, Ash Amirahmadi, said that it "cannot make enough at the moment in terms of the demand" in Africa, while China's infant formula market is set to double in value to US$25 billion by 2017.

Arla is the UK's biggest cheese, butter and milk producer, known for its Cravendale milk, Anchor butter and licensed products such as Lurpak. It produces about 3.2 billion litres of milk in the UK each year and has an annual turnover of £2 billion (US$3.3 billion).

The dairy company also has stakeholders in Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany. The company said it would open up registration for ownership again this month.