Milcobel and Laiterie des Ardennes take over milk collection

In mid-November 2015, both dairy companies entered into an agreement in which Milcobel agreed to take over the collection of about 180m litres of milk per year at 443 supplier-dairy farmers from FrieslandCampina.

Almost 70% of the supplier dairy farmers accepted the offer, with 106 opting to switch to Laiterie des Ardennes. The 28 remaining supplier-dairy farmers will stop production entirely, or make the switch on July 1, 2016.

This means that 175m kilograms of milk will no longer be processed by FrieslandCampina but by Milcobel and Laiterie des Ardennes.

FrieslandCampina will continue to collect milk from the farms that are going to stop business or will make the switch in July.

Milcobel capabilities increased

In late 2015, FrieslandCampina announced that it had entered into an agreement with Milcobel about a partial transfer of milk collection in order to better bring the milk collection into line with the market demand in Belgium. Because of recent investments, Milcobel can process extra milk.

A spokesperson for Milcobel told DR that, “Milcobel is capable of taking in these farmers within the cooperative membership, and within the processing capacity that has been developed as a result of the investments made in recent years: more mozzarella production and new powder towers.”​

FrieslandCampina Belgium will continue to buy milk from 441 other supplier-dairy farmers and its 28 Belgian member dairy farmers.