The discussions during the change negotiations will address potential workforce reductions and significant alterations to employment terms and conditions, including modifications to job descriptions and job duties. It is estimated that the potential workforce reductions may affect up to 130 individuals, while planned alterations to employment terms and conditions could impact up to 135 employees. Valio currently employs around 4,300 individuals, with 3,700 of them based in Finland.

The rationale behind these negotiations is primarily linked to production and economic factors, necessitating operational restructuring.

Valio’s business operations have been operating in a challenging global economic environment. Factors contributing to these negotiations include increased operating expenses for Valio, declining consumer product demand, and a decrease in global prices of industrial products, all of which have placed significant pressure on profitability.

Marianne Tammela, executive vice president of the people, strategy, and innovations function at Valio, stated, “The operating environment has been very challenging for us for a long time. There are several factors behind the change negotiations: the increase in Valio’s own operating expenses, weakening demand for consumer products, and a fall in global prices of industrial products. All of these factors have challenged our profitability. Unfortunately, for these reasons, we are forced to initiate change negotiations.”

“Through profitable business operations, we ensure the vitality of our owners, i.e. the dairy farms, and we secure the continuity of Finnish food production. That enable us in the long run to also create jobs and livelihoods around Finland,” notes Tammela.

Valio is a cooperative owned by approximately 3,400 dairy farms, and it distributes its operating profits to these farmers.

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“The co-op considers the prevailing price particularly since late April has undervalued Fonterra shares, which is a key reason for announcing this buyback,” says McBride. The buyback programme will be made under section 65 of the Companies Act and may run for up to 12 months from commencement.  Fonterra may acquire shares through the FSM at the prevailing market price from time to time in that period.

This programme is separate to the allocation of up to $300 million Fonterra announced last year to support liquidity in the FSM as farmer shareholders transition to the Flexible Shareholding capital structure, through an on-market buyback (Transitional Buyback) and other tools such as the market-making arrangements.

McBride notes that Fonterra is preparing to implement the Flexible Shareholding structure as soon as possible but has not yet set a date for when it will be effective. In April, the government announced its support for the structure and has signalled that it expects the amendments to progress through Parliament this year.

“We remind shareholders that even though share compliance obligations remain on hold until at least six months after the new structure is effective, shareholders can still buy or sell shares within Fonterra’s current constitutional limits (which is generally 1x-2x a supplying shareholders’ three-season average milk supply). Shareholders should seek advice from their financial advisor, accountant, lawyer, or rural professional before making any decisions,” says McBride.

The maximum number of shares that may be acquired pursuant to this buyback programme and the Transitional Buyback (should that also proceed under section 65 of the Companies Act) taken together over the next 12 months is 80,667,893 shares. This number of shares is set in accordance with section 65 of the Companies Act and represents 5% of Fonterra’s shares on issue 12 months prior to the acquisition of shares.

The number of shares purchased under the buyback from time to time, and the average price, will be notified to the NZX and ASX on the business day following the date on which those shares are bought back. Shares bought back will be cancelled upon acquisition, so the number of shares on issue will reduce accordingly.

Throughout the buyback period, Fonterra will continue to assess market conditions, its prevailing share price, available investment opportunities and all other relevant considerations. Fonterra reserves the right to suspend without notice or terminate the buyback programme at any time.

Meanwhile, other local competitors and New Zealand media are querying the reasoning behind this buyback and the government’s for allowing the restructuring, according to New Zealand website Stuff.

 Please see this link for more explanation: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/128905326/fonterra-asked-the-government-to-change-the-law-in-doing-so-it-risks-increasing-both-pollution-and-milk-prices

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Feeding a growing population while agricultural practices and dairy production are under environmental scrutiny is a huge challenge. Already one of the most carbon efficient dairy producers in the world, Kerry is committed to providing leadership in reaching science-based climate targets while ensuring the environmental, social and economic sustainability of farms, contributing to deliver a world of sustainable nutrition.

Commenting on the announcement, Pat Murphy, CEO of Kerry’s Dairy Business, said: “Consumers globally want to consume food in a more sustainable way and it is important to examine how we can deliver dairy in a better way for people and the planet. Our Beyond the Horizon sustainability strategy sets out ambitious targets and our dairy business is committed to supporting our milk suppliers in the adoption of sustainable actions. Our milk-suppliers are already amongst the most sustainable milk producers in the world and we will continue to work with them to build upon that advantage and accelerate the enhancement of bio-diversity and water-quality across our catchment and in reducing carbon and ammonia emissions. Our ambition is to reach over two billion people with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030. A central element of this strategy is a commitment to work with our suppliers to reduce emissions intensity by 30% across our supply chain. This dairy sustainability programme underpins our ambition to work with our milk suppliers in achieving these targets and in forging a sustainable future.”

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With the new farmer supply, Alpenhain adds almost ten million kg of milk per year to its milk pool.

In order to offer consumers and customers even more transparency, Alpenhain published an interactive dairy farmer map on its website last year. It not only shows where the farms of the Alpenhain milk suppliers are, but also provides information on the residents, the area under cultivation, history and special features of the farms.

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As the dairy company continues to proactively address a range of important issues for consumers and customers, the revised three-year programme for Müller Direct farmers now includes a greater focus on environmental challenges, responsibilities and opportunities.

The initiative is part of Müller Advantage, which provides up to 600 Müller Direct dairy farmers with tools and support to help further improve supply chain collaboration, animal welfare, responsible sourcing and reductions in environmental impact.

The programme, which is fully supported and funded by Müller and the Müller Milk Group, and delivered in collaboration with Kite Consulting, will include workshops, farm visits, and even face time with elite athletes as part of the company’s status as Official Supporter of British Athletics and Athletics Ireland, and visits to Müller sites.

Focus areas include the environment and sustainability, leadership and delegation, market analysis, succession planning, marketing, communication and business improvement planning.

The group will meet three times per year, enabling the farmers to share best practice and knowledge. Applications close 28 June, with the first meeting taking place in October 2021.

Rob Hutchison, operations director at Müller Milk & Ingredients said: “We want to become Britain’s private label dairy leader, so we are taking a number of steps to ensure we are the partner of choice for farmers, customers and suppliers.

“Our Müller Advantage programme is already incentivising farmers to tackle the issues that we know are important for our customers and consumers. Next Generation is further evidence of our intent to create a supply chain, from farm to customer, which is collaborative, distinctive, sustainable and profitable.

“We know from the successful first cohort that there is a lot of talent and passion for dairy farming out there, and we believe we can help this next group on their way to becoming Britain’s future elite dairy farmers.”

Frances Herdman, who was one of the 25 farmers selected to join the first Next Generation programme, which completed in 2021, said: “One of the main things that attracted me to the Müller Next Generation programme was the chance to meet and learn from like-minded people, we are a group of younger producers who share many of the same business challenges and plans for the future.

“Being able to discuss and examine issues from each other’s businesses is a great way of bringing ideas home. Farming can be quite an isolated industry and this programme gave us great access to a lively, innovative and supportive group.”

James Pemberton, who was also part of the first cohort said: “By far the most beneficial aspect for me was the chance to share our financial and technical information within the group. It helped me and my family to focus on the direction we were heading in and how we can regularly review our business strategy to reap the best financial reward.”

Applications can be made by visiting: www.muller.co.uk/dairy-farming/how-we-work-with-farmers.

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From 1 June 2021, up to 10 cents of each farm’s milk payment will be determined by the farm’s sustainability credentials and milk quality.

“Fonterra farmers are already among the world’s best in these areas and we’re really proud of that. The Co-operative Difference payment is another way we can recognise farmers, while also supporting our strategy to grow the value of our New Zealand milk by responding to increasing demand around the world for sustainably produced dairy,” says Richard Allen, group director, Farm Source.

“The new payment recognises farmers who are already going above and beyond because they’ve innovated and invested early, and it also offers farmers more encouragement for taking the steps required to meet the changing expectations of customers and communities, both today and into the future.

“We want to reward the on-farm efforts that demonstrate our Co-op’s care for the environment, animals, people and communities. It’s these actions which help ensure we’re the dairy company of choice for customers around the world and for New Zealand dairy farmers, for generations to come.”

The 10 cent Co-operative Difference payment is made up of:

• 7 cents per kgMS for achievement under the Environment, Co-op & Prosperity, Animals, and People & Community focus areas.

Once these have been achieved;

• 3 cents per kgMS for milk that meets the ‘Excellence’ standard under the Milk Quality framework.

While The Co-operative Difference framework was introduced in 2019, the milk payment is new to farmers.

Full details on the Co-operative Difference payment are available here.

The Co-operative Difference payment details:

• 7 cents per kgMS for achievement under the Environment, Co-op & Prosperity, Animals, and People & Community focus areas. Once these have been achieved;
• 3 cents per kgMS where Excellence is achieved for all milk quality parameters under the Milk Quality framework.
• Effective from next season, from 1 June 2021.
• Current Farm Source Rewards Dollars in The Co-operative Difference will be replaced with The Co-operative Difference payment.
• The amount and targets will be set annually by the Fonterra Board.
• The total amount available to be paid to farmers does not change, but a proportion of the Farmgate Milk Price will be available to be redistributed between farmers to better reflect individual farm’s achievement against the Co-operative Difference Framework.

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The ‘We Are Dairy’ Initiative, which offers the overall winner a generous prize of $10,000, is inviting dairy farm owners, managers, employees or dairy farming groups to promote the industry by showcasing the incredible advancements being made on dairy farms and the positive impact they have on farm businesses, communities or the supply chain, on a daily basis.

Alison Cox, Agricultural Global Application specialist at Diversey explains: “It’s time for the industry to stand up and demonstrate the extraordinary progress we have made in the dairy sector, and the innovative ways in which farms have adapted to improve animal welfare and sustainability.

“We are looking for dairy applicants who are excelling through improvements to the efficiency, quality or sustainability of their business.

“We’re looking for innovation, in a simple and practical form, that can be easily transferred to other dairy farm businesses and therefore deliver significant sustainable advancements. It can be anything from savings on fuel and transport or utilities to a new housing design that has seen improvement in animal health.

Matt Sheehan, principal consultant at Promar International, adds: “For the dairy industry, we are living through a time of brilliant change and we want to celebrate the positives. Here at Promar International, we see a rural economy that’s brimming with opportunity and want to celebrate this with the ‘We are Dairy’ initiative. I want to encourage the industry to get behind this initiative and promote our progress to not only the farming community but also a wider audience including consumers.”

Applications can be made by visiting www.wearedairy.com from early February to the end of August 2021. Judging will take place in September and five finalists will be selected. The overall winner will be announced in October and will receive a $10,000 prize.

The judging team comprises of Alison Cox, Agricultural Global Application specialist at Diversey, Daniel Daggett, executive director of Sustainability at Diversey, and Matt Sheehan, principal consultant at Promar International.

To further illustrate the progress of the innovation and advancements, and promote the industry around the globe, Diversey and Promar will publish a report highlighting the impact on climate and welfare if the processes carried out by the finalists were applied by the international dairy farming community.

For more information, visit: www.wearedairy.com.

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The IFCN covers around 99% of the world milk supply with its researchers network, and Milica Koçić, a dairy economist, notes the average of three cows per farm globally amounts to around 850 million tonnes of milk production annually on 112 million dairy farms. An estimated 117kg per capita is consumed yearly by the world’s 7.6 billion people, she says. International trade is there, with 18% of world milk supply moving across borders, while the rest is consumed in the countries it’s produced in.

Overall, notes Alice Diepenbrock, a dairy researcher at IFCN, there is not much growth occurring in the mature markets such as Europe and North America, while the East and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin American markets are seeing increases, but from a fairly low level. The Covid-19 is expected to have more of an impact on emerging markets, on the demand side, she says.

For large exporters, such as Uruguay, the main challenge is to improve its market access to other countries’ markets, according to Mercedes Baraibar, coordinator of foreign trade, at Inale, the Instituto Nacional de la Leche in Uruguay. “ We need more trade agreements to put our dairy market in the same situation as our competitors such as New Zealand and the US. The worry is in the second wave of Covid, countries are building stocks.”

In Zimbabwe, it has been about rebuilding self-sufficiency after currency devaluations, recession, droughts and internal strife. In 2019 it had 130 million litres demand, but supply amounted to 76.1 million litres domestically, and it was supplemented with powders from South Africa. Government and processors are working together to introduce option trading systems, investments in embryo transfers, and other associated solutions to increase the self-sufficiency back to 100%, according to Dr Alpha Manjer, policy officer of the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers.

For more information, visit: www.ifcndairy.org.

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This group of private sector, non-profit, and research organisations will engage in a two-year programme designed to increase the supply of nutritional dairy products available to local communities and guide women smallholder farmers in methods that bolster nutrient-rich forages (corn silage and hay) production – providing reliable feed for dairy cattle, improving milk production and reducing the production cost of those dairy products.

FGI’s participation in the alliance highlights its leadership in the forage industry and is an example of the business’ recent renewed investment into new technologies, dairies and global brand building, while remaining committed to being an R&D and innovation leader.

“We’re excited to play a part in advancing the dairy industry in Kenya and helping make an impact on the lives of these women who are leading this effort while feeding their neighbors,” said Pete Theisen, general manager, FGI. “This project is directly in line with FGI’s commitment to advancing the forage industry and supporting dairy farmers.”

In addition to FGI’s forage leadership, the alliance combines Corteva’s leadership in agricultural inputs and support of smallholder farmers with ILRI’s locally-based, world-renowned forage R&D capabilities and livestock management practices. Land O’Lakes Venture37 will contribute its extensive experience adapting advanced technologies and techniques to the smallholder farmer level and facilitating last-mile delivery of key inputs. Bidco Land O’Lakes, a Kenya-based feed manufacturer, works closely with these collaborators to offer compound feed that complements effective forages.

“This alliance, through its advancement of animal nutrition in Kenya’s dairy sector, is simultaneously advancing human nutrition and human success – a shining example of Land O’Lakes’ guiding purpose: feeding human progress,” said John Ellenberger, executive director of Land O’Lakes Venture37. “Through its combination of private sector investment, local expertise, applied data and technologies, and last mile delivery, this alliance is helping to make markets work more effectively for lower-resource populations. Strategic alliances like these are a foundational element of our current work and future ambitions.”

¹Kenya Dairy Board – www.kdb.go.ke

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Shri Dilip Rath, chairman of the NDDB says, “Vidarbha and Marathwada have been the most drought affected regions, making it agriculturally distressed; therefore dairying in such adverse climatic conditions can create additional sources for livelihood of farmers. NDDB, through its subsidiary Mother Dairy, set up milk procurement infrastructure to facilitate the larger objective of rural prosperity by providing better remuneration to the farmers of the region.”

An MOU was signed in 2013 between the NDDB and the government of Maharashtra for taking up dairy development in the drought prone Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, in order to make dairying a source of sustainable livelihood and poverty alleviation for milk producers. The project refurbished the Nagpur Dairy plant, which has milk processing capacity of 200,000 litres per day.

Under the project, on an average 185,000 litres of milk is procured every day at 1,454 milk pooling points (MPPs) and products are being supplied to more than 2,350 milk booths franchisee outlets and retailers in about 40 cities. At present, milk is being procured from dairy farmers residing in around 2,503 villages of 10 districts: Amravati, Yavatmal, Wardha, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Buldhana, in Vidarbha and Nanded, Osmanabad, Latur and Jalna in Marathwada. An electronic weighing/testing facility is deployed to ensure a transparent system wherein farmers can observe the weight, quality results and value of their milk poured. A computerised printed slip is provided to each farmers and they receive their payments directly in their bank accounts, which ensures transparency. It is to be noted that almost 30% of the members are women and a further emphasis is being laid to increase their participation.

To enhance the milk production and further increase dairy farmers’ income, good quality cattle feed is being provided to members covering 319 villages and mineral mixture to members covering 265 villages. Conserving green fodder in the form of silage is one of the best options available to ensure regular supply of quality fodder to bovines, especially during lean season. Farmers are also being trained in silage making.

Besides providing liquid milk to the consumers, Mother Dairy has launched products such as curd, mishti doi/yogurt, buttermilk milk, Tadka chhaas, ghee, orange burfi, sweets, flavoured milk, milk shake, tetra lassi, lassi fresh, ice cream, butter, paneer, cheese, dairy whitener, UHT milk, UST cream, Safal products and Dhara edible oils. Its daily value added product sales have already reached 6,800kg.

NDDB, in collaboration with All India Radio, has also launched Radio Samvad – an awareness series on radio for dairy farmers of the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. Every Tuesday and Friday, a 30-minute episode is broadcast from Nagpur, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Osmanabad and Nanded radio stations on subjects related to scientific dairy animal management. Subject experts from NDDB are conducting the sessions in which dairy farmers are taking a keen interest.

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Over the last few days, Fonterra farmers have been receiving unique Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions profiles for their farms – the first time such a tool has been introduced in New Zealand at scale. The profiles form part of a Farm Environmental Report – which combines a GHG Report and Nitrogen Risk Scorecard.

Fonterra director, On-Farm Excellence, Charlotte Rutherford, says the reports are designed to provide useful insights for farmers to help identify opportunities for improvements on farm – providing indicators such as the estimated level of biological methane and nitrous oxide emissions per hectare, and the amount of emissions per kilogram of milk solids.

“One of the most important steps in improving your emissions profile is understanding where your emissions come from, and that’s what this report does.

“As well as being a very practical step toward helping New Zealand meet climate change commitments, the Environmental Report supports our strategy to meet growing global demand for food that’s kind to the planet.

“New Zealand milk is already among the most sustainably produced in the world, but with increasing customer and consumer motivation linked to climate change, we need to ensure we’re continuing to position ourselves for the future – from both a regulatory and market perspective.

“Today 81% of consumers feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment. Our customers are responding to this by setting some bold goals to reduce their emissions profile over the coming years and there’s an opportunity for farmers to support them. For example, Nestlé has a target for net zero emissions by 2050 and Starbucks aims to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030,” said Rutherford.

Once the reports are in farmers’ hands, the focus will turn to implementing practical and sensible solutions to help reduce emissions.

South Wairarapa farmer Aidan Bichan is one of around 100 farmers who took part in the original pilot in 2018. Aidan runs a 900 cow dairy farm near Featherston and says knowing his farm emissions profile prompted his team to make some practical changes, including halving the amount of nitrogen fertiliser applied on farm.

“It hasn’t really impacted production because we’re getting more efficient use of that nitrogen. We’ve changed the timing and the rate of application, and we’re a lot more careful about how we use it.”

For more on what Bichan had to say about the Environmental Report, visit: vimeo.com/466399904/b0b21079cb.

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Consumers increasingly expect sustainably produced milk and dairy products. This requirement is aimed at both manufacturing and processing companies. The consumer expectation today relates primarily to production. Topics include among other things no synthetic fertilisers, no chemical pesticides, more animal welfare and also economic aspects.

Dairies already have sustainability concepts – some are being set up, others are being further developed. Against this background, science and the dairy industry in Germany developed the QM sustainability module for milk. It is a joint venture between the Thünen Institute for Business Administration and QM-Milch.

With the milk sustainability module, the three pillars of sustainability (economy, ecology and social issues), supplemented by animal welfare, have been anchored even more firmly in milk production. Dairy farmers and dairy representatives from various federal states were involved in the development of the module.

The sustainability module can be used voluntarily by the dairies as a basic tool.

The pilot phase ran from 2017-2020, financed by the BLE (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food) and results from 26 dairies’ responses to surveys were available. Since July 2020, the continuation with the industry solution QM sustainability module 2.0 has been added at the dairy producer level. There are currently 28 dairies from different federal states participating.

In the publicly funded pilot phase for the sustainability module, around 7,500 data sets were collected from farmers. The response rates were good.

It has been shown that milk producers score points with good training, they produce “green energy”, contribute to biodiversity, value animal welfare and volunteer work.

The nationwide general report will be sent to the dairies in 2020. Participating dairies will find out how sustainably milk is produced and at which points, together with their milk producers, further development should be sought.

Farmers can see the benchmark results where they stand in comparison to the other dairy farmers, but also in comparison to the nationwide development. The international competition represents one of the challenges for the dairy industry. This also includes the sustainability issue. The QM sustainability module milk can be an essential pillar at the milk producer level.

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Over 80% of those surveyed paid attention to freshness and regionality during the lockdown – only half (42.1%), however, increasingly went for low prices.

Almost all regional buyers have a common goal: 96.6% buy local products to support regional agriculture with their purchases. This means that solidarity with local farmers is ahead of the environmental aspect of short transport routes with 78.6%.

“I am particularly pleased that almost all of the respondents stated that they buy regionally in order to support local agriculture. It is immensely important for our farmers to know that there is enormous interest among the population in who produces our food and how,” says managing director Bernhard Pointner.

Statements such as “I think it’s important that the farmers get reasonable prices for their work” and “I buy regionally because small farmers are also important” impress Georg Baumgartner, who is the district chairman of the Bavarian Farmers’ Association. “Sustainable agriculture is not a question of size, but of innovation,” he emphasises.

For him, the results give hope that the dairy industry in the mountain area has a future. Two thirds of the respondents also stated that since the pandemic started, regional and local origins have become even more important to them when it comes to food.

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Above all in the first half of the year, especially in January (-4.56%) and February (-2.68%), less milk was delivered. This trend changed from August and more milk was taken over again by the end of 2019. This development continued at the beginning of the new year 2020.

At the end of last year, there were 25,608 milk producers and 524,068 dairy cows in Austria. These not only supplied the local dairies, but also delivered raw milk to dairies in Germany and Italy.

In 2018 there were 26,584 milk suppliers; this was 976 suppliers or 3.7% more than in 2019. Looking back on the situation 20 years ago, in 1999, there were still 72,358 milk producers in Austria. Since then, 46,750 dairy farmers have stopped delivering. The trend will continue in 2020, according to the AMA.

In percentage terms, Austria continues to be among the front runners in the organic milk sector. Last year, Austrian dairies were supplied with 584,974 tons of organic milk (389,564 tons of ordinary organic milk and 195,410 tons of organic hay milk). The dairies and cheese factories processed 2.9% or 16,611 tons more organic milk than in the previous year; the share in the total delivery was around 18.6%. The organic drinking milk sector stands out in particular, where production was increased by more than 8% or 9.9 million kg. Especially pasteurised drinking milk with a fat content of 3.5% and more was able to achieve a strong increase in production; the additional production compared to 2018 was an impressive 7.4 million kg.

The main product in the drinking milk sector is still ESL whole milk. In 2019 71.6 million kg was produced. Total organic drinking milk production amounted to 130 million kg, which corresponds to around 16.6% of the total Austrian drinking milk production.

The sweet cream and sour cream category was able to achieve a significant gain in 2019 with an increase of 13%, with the production of pasteurised sour cream with a fat content of over 29% increasing significantly.

Kefir is becoming a customer favourite in the acidified and sweet organic milk mix products category, there was a small increase in production of 1% compared to 2018 and amounted to just over 35 million kg. The kefir production in 2019 increased by more than 1 million kg and was 3.4 million kg annual production, in the organic sector. A total of 14.5 million kg of kefir were produced in 2019. Kefir has seen the greatest increases in production over the past five years.

In the cheese and curd cheese (organic) area production fell by around 3.6% to 30.8 million kg in 2019. Gouda and Bergkäse were among the losers in the organic segment compared to 2018.

Total exports from Austrian dairies in 2019 saw an increase compared to the previous year in all product segments, with the exception of butter preparations (-16.7%) and sweet and sour cream products (-1%).

Although Austria is traditionally an importer of butter, as more butter is needed than is produced domestically, exports in this product group have also increased. A total of 33,519 tons of tea butter was produced and 2,064 tons of this was exported; this meant an increase of 24% or 403 tons over the previous year.

In the drinking milk sector, exports rose by 1% or 3,592 tons. A total of 359,967 tons (this makes up 46% of the total production) were exported, the main share was UHT drinking whole milk.

In the cheese and curd cheese category exports also increased by 1%. Of the 205,160 tons of cheese and curd cheese produced, 90,538 tons (corresponds to 44% of production) were exported. The soft cheese product group was very popular, especially brie, green cheese, double mould cheese, soft cheese with white mould and soft cheese with cultures/red smear. But the semi-hard cheese product group, which includes varieties such as Edamer, Gouda and Tilsiter, couldn’t quite keep up.

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The ranking is based on Scottish household shopping choices and reveals which brands are being bought by the most consumers the most often.

2020 has been a challenging year for the whole country and Graham’s has responded to the global pandemic with the same hard-working family values, great taste, product and innovative thinking which has been at the heart of its business for over 80 years.

Sales of butter doubled amid a surge in home baking during lockdown, the business working around the clock to make sure this and all other dairy products were available on shelves.

The business also understood very early on that some people were unable to leave their homes to buy milk, cream or butter, so very quickly mobilised their teams across the country to be in a position to offer doorstep delivery, a personal service to more people and areas across Scotland.

With the launch of new Goodness Kefir, a cultured, fermented milk drink, similar to yogurt earlier this year, as well as Skyr in a new on-the-go pouch format and an expansion of the Goodness ice cream flavours, Graham says its focus will be to continue and develop new and exciting dairy products for customers.

Robert Graham, managing director at Graham’s The Family Dairy, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be named Scotland’s most chosen brand; both no. 1 Food Brand and no. 9 global brand in Scotland, it is an amazing achievement! We are grateful to all our wonderful customers, choosing to buy our locally produced Scottish dairy products from our family business, rather than our international competitors.

“People have increasingly sought our local, great tasting Scottish dairy products that they understand and trust. We believe that the consumer’s desire to support brands who are local and have the provenance they can trust, has further accelerated since Covid-19. This will continue to be increasingly important as we move forward.

“We have a fantastic team of colleagues and farmers, all working hard daily to deliver fresh and great tasting dairy products, particularly during these challenging times. Working in partnership with our 100 farmers, we will continue to innovate and produce high quality Scottish dairy products.”

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After the private co-owner left the owners’ association of SalzburgMilch GmbH at the beginning of this year, Austria’s third largest dairy went back to 100% ownership by local dairy farmers, but these were organised in three independent cooperatives.

In order to continue leading the SalzburgMilch company into a successful future, the three cooperatives recently decided in general meetings to modernise the ownership structures. For this purpose, the cooperatives merged into one, which will now operate under the name Salzburger Alpenmilch Genossenschaft eGen.

The chairman of the new cooperative is Robert Leitner, a dairy farmer from Tarsdorf and the previous chairman of Milchhof Salzburg eGen, as well as the longstanding chairman of the supervisory board of SalzburgMilch. Franz Bernhofer (dairy farmer from Scheffau), Martin Fersterer (dairy farmer from Lamprechtshausen) and Peter Lassacher (dairy farmer from Mariapfarr) were appointed as his deputies.

In addition, the Salzburger Alpenmilch Genossenschaft eGen takes on the role of parent company for a newly created group of companies, which, in addition to the cooperative and the operational SalzburgMilch GmbH, also includes the newly-founded Salzburger Alpenmilch Holding. Andreas Gasteiger, managing director of SalzburgMilch GmbH, will take over the management of the Salzburger Alpenmilch Holding with immediate effect.

“In our very volatile market, quick decisions have to be made for operational business. The new ownership structure ensures this and ensures that we can continue on our successful path”, said Gasteiger.

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“The quality-oriented milk production of local dairy farmers and the processing in our regionally structured dairies into high-quality dairy products have proven themselves to be crisis-proof and important for secure self-sufficiency in the adverse circumstances of the corona crisis, the dairy industry is thus able to ensure a significant share of the domestic security of food supply,” said president of the Association of Austrian Milk Processors (VÖM), Helmut Petschar, on the subject of food security.

Regionality has again become more important, both in production and in processing. Farmers, dairies, logistics companies and retail employees have done their best to achieve successes in food security, the organisation says.

“For the domestic dairy industry it is important that the right lessons are learned from the coronavirus crisis, which is not yet over: crisis-proof and regionally based food production and processing are very important, and the right political framework must be created for this, furthermore a good partnership with the food trade, so that regional products are offered to the consumers, who decide with their daily purchase decision, which foods we have and where and how we produce them,” stated Petschar.

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