GERMANY – The Bavarian local government has confirmed its support for a regional marketing initiative for drinking milk involving from 400 dairy farms around Munich.

The 283,000 euro of funding will pay for the development of marketing and quality control for milk produced by local farms and sold in and around the Bavarian capital.

Bavarian Minister of Agriculture Josef Miller welcomed the concept of regionalisation in milk production and supply. He added that it had a great future because it leant itself more to tighter quality assurance and consumer product association.

Society and the environment would also profit from the scheme, he said, through more regional employment and short transport distances for the dairy products.

The concept, commented Miller, also meant more profit for the local milk farms giving a value-added product, which met the quality assurance and regional production demands of modern consumers.

The milk is to be collected by the local Andechser Molkerei Scheitz processor and marketed under the label “Unser Land” (Our Land). The milk is being collected from farms and transported to Andechser Molkerie by a number of other dairies participating in the programme.