Co-operative group starts work in Germany
Germany’s new dairy cooperative interest group IGM started its work in mid-February and the first subjects to be discussed were market volatility and animal welfare. The main task of the group is to coordinate common positions on policy issues concerning the interests of milk producers and their cooperatives. These are to be represented jointly, when dealing with political and administrative bodies in Germany and at European level, according to IGM.
Furthermore, an exchange on cooperative-specific and producer-related issues is to be undertaken in order to develop strategic recommendations, which can then be further discussed and possibly implemented in the individual companies.
Founding members of this platform are the cooperative companies Arla, Bayerische Milchindustrie, DMK Deutsches Milchkontor, Hochwaldmilch, Ammerland and Royal FrieslandCampina.
Thomas Stürtz, chairman of the management board of DMK, has been elected chairman of the interest group. Second in command will be Peter Manderfeld, chairman of the management board of Hochwald Milch. The administration of the group’s activities is carried out by the German Raiffeisen Association (DRV).
One of the focal points of the first and future meetings is a discussion of ways to mitigate market volatility, which, in low-price phases, poses massive profitability and liquidity problems for milk producers.
Price hedging on stock exchanges will in future play a greater role in the risk management of producers’ organisations. The dairy cooperatives are ready to assist their members in the use of this instrument. At the present time, farmers are still seeing a number of obstacles for which the interest community wants to develop solutions. Thus, the supply of raw milk contracts and smaller contract sizes would significantly facilitate access to the stock exchange.
A further focus of future work will be the increasing demands on animal welfare. Here, the milk producers are confronted with a variety of demands from the trade, some of which go beyond existing legal standards. The cooperative dairy interest group has set itself the goal of developing its own strategy and using it in communication.
