December 17, 2013

 

Arla seeks to grow milk pool further

Arla, a Yorkshire-based dairy company, has announced it is looking to source five billion litres of milk from the UK by 2020.

 

Ash Amirahmadi, vice-president for milk member services at the processing firm, revealed the figure as he outlined how Arla is looking to invest in its brands at the Northern Dairy Conference, held in Skipton by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) this week.

 

Around 160 Yorkshire farmers supply Arla with milk. Its UK milk pool is around 3,200 million litres which represents 26% of Great Britain's total milk pool.

 

Amirahmadi said: "Arla has significant growth ambitions and we have strong plans in place. Arla already has circa 1,600 British owners and the Arla Foods Milk Partnership (AFMP) roadmap resulted in 85% of AFMP members also taking up the opportunity to become co-owners of the cooperative. We are looking to grow our milk pool further, through our current farmers increasing their milk production and through further farmer recruitment."

 

Dairy industry figures are optimistic that a forecasted surge in global demand for milk, as a result of emerging markets in places like China and Russia, can give the UK dairy industry a lift after years of decline.

 

NFU dairy chairman Mansel Raymond said that milk producers were in a much improved position compared to a year ago, with better quality forage boosting brighter cattle condition.

 

Farmgate milk prices currently stand at 33.5p per litre.

 

Months of hard work by the NFU and the Dairy Coalition had delivered a better and more transparent contractual environment for farmers, Raymond said.

 

Farmers at the conference were advised to adopt collaborative ways of working to improve their dairy operations, not necessarily by sharing equipment but by sharing information through benchmarking projects to promote best practice and help producers gain a better perspective of their own business performance.

 

Bedale farmer Tim Gibson, the NFU's new North East dairy board vice-chairman, said it was great to hear so much positivity from dairy farmers at the annual conference.