A-ware Food bidding producers in Netherlands

A-ware Food Group, which last year caused a furore by teaming up with Fonterra to plan an 80,000 tonnes per year cheese plant in Dutch Heerenveen (production starts 2014), is causing yet more unrest by openly bidding for large-scale milk producers, many of them currently supplying the rival cheese maker DOC Kaas.

A-ware has already enticed a major group of milk producers away from DOC Kaas and is now using the DOC milk prices as benchmarks onto which are being added bonuses for producers switching to the New Zealand/Dutch opposition.

For instance, farms or farmer-groups undertaking to deliver more than half a million kg per year will get, according to A-ware, up to €0.01 more per kg above DOC price. And farms consigning even more milk than this can earn up to €0.029 per kg extra. Delivery contracts being offered by A-ware/Fonterra are for two years with a notice period of 13 months.