Arla Foods amba to increase its April milk price
Arla Foods amba is raising its on-account price from 30 March by 1.5 eurocents.
Sterling has continued to strengthen and April sees a new quarter’s (January to March) average exchange rate being introduced to the pricing mechanism. When the impact of the currency smoothing mechanism is taken into account, this raises the UK standard litre by 0.83 pence, taking it to 25.8 pence.
Commenting on the increase, Ash Amirahmadi, head of UK milk and member services, said: “The markets have shown an upward trend recently, in particular due to a reduction in milk production in parts of Europe and New Zealand.
“GDT auction prices reduced in the last auction and, consequently, there is uncertainty as to whether the positive trend in 2015 is sustainable. The impact of the abolition of quotas post April will be a key factor in this.”
Johnnie Russell, Arla Foods amba farmer board director, added: ‘”This increase is welcome news for our 3,000 British farmer owners at an extremely difficult time. It underlines the advantages of being a member of a farmer owned business with a global reach, a broad range of products, and most importantly a transparent and democratic pricing model where increased business revenues are reflected in the milk price.“
Arla Foods is a global dairy company and co-operative owned by 13,500 dairy farmers circa 3,000 of whom are British.
Dating back to 1881, Arla’s purpose is to secure the highest value for its farmers’ milk, while creating opportunities for their growth. With production facilities in 11 countries and sales offices in a further 30, Arla is the world’s sixth largest dairy company and largest supplier of organic dairy products. Arla has a total of more than 18,000 colleagues and its products are sold under the well-known brands Arla®, Lurpak® and Castello® in more than 100 countries.
Arla Foods UK is the largest dairy company in the country and is home to leading dairy brands Anchor, Cravendale, and Lactofree. It has a turnover of £2.3 billion. As well as being number one in fresh liquid milk, butter, spreads and cream, Arla is the UK’s largest cheese manufacturer. It has also built the world’s largest fresh milk facility located at Aylesbury and has plans for it to be the first zero carbon site of its kind. The UK business has a team of approximately 4,000 colleagues located at its dairies, distribution centres and head office.