The farmer beside you
Talking with someone who came from outside the dairy industry to participate in it, I was reminded that we in the dairy industry have a unique relationship with the supply chain. Unlike a company in the tea, coffee or chocolate business, the dairy processor and retailer is quite closely linked to the raw material supplier – the dairy farmer. Milk is a perishable product, and traditionally has not travelled well in liquid form.
When there is a problem with low milk prices, we can’t hide from it. It is there, right in our countryside, whichever country we happen to be in. As a result, we have responsibilities to the supplier and we can’t pretend low prices and volatility don’t matter. If farmers suffer, then we have an obligation to try and help them.
That being said, as sustainability rises to the top of the agenda on many consumers’ minds, other industries such as tea, coffee and chocolate are seeing demands to know more about their supply chain, and what goes on in the lower-wage countries. Raw material chains are being pulled back to places where monitoring is tight enough to assure consumers about where it comes from, and that farmers don’t suffer. As more emerging markets evolve, I am sure there will be a rising tide to bring up the poorer performers. Consumers don’t want people to endure terrible and unsanitary working conditions for their chocolate bars.
In this case, dairy is ahead of the pack. Most countries have never left the supply of milk to someone else 10,000 miles away, so the supply chain is knowable and sustainable. Terroir and locality are part of the DNA of dairy, and it’s a marketable one. We live among the dairy farmers, and they are us.
