Background Milk
Animo dairy farmers for CO2 reduction big
A third of Nestlé's greenhouse gas emissions come from the agricultural sector and half of that comes from milk, says Nikki Adamo, CEO of Nestlé Netherlands. The Swiss food group uses milk powder from Vreugdenhil Dairy Foods, which is why the food giant is very keen to reduce the emissions of dairy farmers who supply the family business.
According to its latest sustainability report, Nestlé Global aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2018 and reach net zero by 2050. Projects have been running for some time in the United Kingdom and Switzerland (at Emmi) - where Vreugdenhil also recently visited - and last year Nestlé started a pilot with Vreugdenhil to limit emissions on the farm.
Vreugdenhil is positively surprised about the number of dairy farmers who want to participate in the project. In addition to the seventeen pilot farmers who started in the last months of last year, another 34 dairy farmers have joined. And that could have been a hundred in terms of interest, emerged during the symposium 'The future of dairy farming in the Netherlands', which Vreugdenhil and Nestlé organized last week at the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden.
The intention is for the number of participants to expand step by step towards 2030. The aim is for 267 of the approximately 900 dairy farmers who supply Vreugdenhil to participate. More dairy farmers will be able to register in the second half of this year.
Investment of €54 million
Together, Nestle and Vreugdenhil are investing more €54 million in the project to reduce greenhouse gases. Each company looks at what can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, methane, nitrous oxide). For example, sowing grass clover ensures that less fertilizer has to be used, so that less CO2 is emitted. The feed supplement Bovaer, which reduces methane emissions, is also used. This year, the soil is also being looked at, to get more protein from the land and also to store CO2, according to the regenerative agricultural idea, according to Vreugdenhil. The farmer himself decides which measures to apply.
The more CO2 is reduced, the higher the compensation. According to the milk powder producer, this can amount to € 7.000 per year. "It shouldn't cost the dairy farmer anything and in the best-case scenario it generates money," says Marjolein de Kreij, Milk Supply manager at Vreugdenhil. "We just know from Bovaer that the cow is not going to give anymore, so we pay for that in full. Sowing grass clover is another calculation: we pay the risk, but the farmer also uses less fertilizer." Participating farmers do have to invest time, for example for workshops and company visits.
During the symposium, Klaas Cuperus, sustainability manager at Nestlé Netherlands, said that the group is willing to pay a premium price. De Kreij indicates that it is not inconceivable that in the future there will also be a CO2 premium in addition to a grazing premium. Incidentally, the milk from the dairy farmers involved does not end up in Nestlé's products one-to-one (it works somewhat according to the same principle as when you buy green electricity).
PPP with Cono and Unilever
Vreugdenhil and Nestlé are also in the process of starting a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Wageningen University, which also involves Cono and Unilever. This concerns eighteen measures that can be used on the farm to reduce CO2. The resulting knowledge can also be applied in other projects. Details on this will be announced shortly.
According to Kees de Koning, manager of the Dairy Campus, halving greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 is achievable with current knowledge 'and more is in the pipeline'. Then he mainly talks about methane. "With craftsmanship and good innovations, the reduction is achievable." According to him, ammonia (not a greenhouse gas) is 'another discussion'. The companies are not concerned with reducing nitrogen either.
Rabobank reserves €3 billion for transition
The agricultural transition was discussed during the symposium. Rabobank was also there and indicated that it would very much like to be a partner for the future. On the one hand, the bank is risk-averse in order to protect savers, but Rabobank also wants to assist farmers in the transition and has set aside €3 billion to facilitate this. The means used by the bank are interest-only periods and interest discounts.
Organic milk powder
Vreugdenhil makes various types of milk powder for Nestlé and for other ice cream, yoghurt and chocolate makers. Organic milk powder has now also been added, the company announced this week. In its factory in Putten - which was purchased in 2022 and where goat milk powder has been made since the beginning of this year - organic whole and skimmed milk powder for the food industry is produced. Vreugdenhil sees an increase in the demand for organic milk powders as an ingredient for confectionery, such as biscuits and chocolate spread. "Because the drying towers in Putten are relatively small compared to our other drying towers, this factory lends itself particularly well to the production of special products," says Patrick Besten, Business Development Director at Vreugdenhil. The organic milk is collected from suppliers of Vreugdenhil itself.
Linda van Eekeres
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