Holstein dairies in Germany combine for profits

摘要

Fourteen co-operative dairies in Germany's most northern state, Schleswig-Holstein are involved in a number of actions that should end in a single umbrella marketing organisation handling around 2.1 million tonnes of milk annually. Most of the future partners are small dairies with annual throughputs less than 250m kg and limited processing capacities which has meant that some 50% of collected milk is sold-on for further processing elsewhere. Under present market conditions this means the co-operatives are only managing to pay from €0.18 to €0.21/kg to their farmers. Still subject to approval from respective memberships, the plan is to launch "Schleswig-Holstein Milch" at the end of this year for combined marketing power that should bring higher prices. Logistics, storage and processing capacities are also expected to be shared.