Berchtesgadener Land’s local operations
Although Germany is struggling with the coronavirus and its citizens have restricted movement, the dairy sector tries to keep on as normal as possible. For example, Berchtesgadener Land is continuing to process the entire milk volume of its 1,700 farmers. This ensures the supply of the population, the jobs of the employees and the income of the farmers.
As the co-operative is regional, it offers stability of supply. “The milk comes from our farmers between Watzmann and Zugspitze, it is processed at our only production site in Piding and our main market is Bavaria,” sums up managing director Bernhard Pointner.
The German Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner has declared the agriculture and food industry to be ‘systemically important’. This is how Pointner, describes the current focus: “In times of crisis, we put all our strength into collecting the milk from our 1,700 farmers, processing and delivering it to the dairy and thus supplying the population with the staple food to make our contribution.”
All processes along the supply chain, from milk collection, production and finally the delivery runs are smooth for the dairy. However, the increased demand, especially for milk and butter, sometimes leads to bottlenecks in retail. The dairy has been able to react to this in part with extended shifts, and otherwise order quantities are currently being reduced. In the disposition, care is taken to ensure that all customers are served according to the quantities ordered so far.
“The corona crisis clearly shows us, how vulnerable our globally networked economy is today,” says the managing director.
