Arla investment gives high hopes for dairy

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. It’s UK milk pool is around 3,200 million litres which represents 26 per cent of Great Britain’s total milk pool.

Speaking after the event, Mr 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 per cent of AFMP members also taking up the opportunity to become co-owners of the co-operative.

“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 told delegates attending the conference on Wednesday 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, Mr Raymond said.

“We now have more choice than we have ever had on contracts including the possibility of ‘Cost of Production +’ contracts. But of course there is still more to do and we are now looking at how to encourage fixed price options going forward.”

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.

One delegate said he had gained five pence per litre in returns for his milk by being involved with benchmarking projects.

Held for the fifth successive year, the conference also attracted as speakers Gordon Whitford, the northern area manager for HSBC bank, and Amanda Ball, head of marketing and communications at DairyCo, the levy funded, not-for-profit organisation that works on behalf of British dairy farmers to solve the industry’s market failure.

A brighter future

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.

“For the last ten to 15 years dairy farming has seen little if no investment, confidence has been low and we have seen many farmers quitting the sector.

“Now though we are really beginning to see sizeable investment in the industry, milk prices are improved and contracts are also better, so all the signs are positive.”