Inside Milk
RFC suppliers welcome to Milcobel
Dozens of Belgian dairy farmers are considering switching from FrieslandCampina to Milcobel. This is because of the new requirements that FrieslandCampina sets for Belgian dairy farmers. Milcobel says he is open to the extra liters of milk.
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All Belgian dairy farmers who supply FrieslandCampina or who are affiliated with the cooperative will be obliged to switch to grazing from 2019 onwards. Some of them find it difficult to meet this requirement because they have too small a house to graze their livestock.
Milcobel does not set any requirements regarding grazing. Dairy farmers must, however, go through a checklist to see whether their business operations are in line with the cooperative. "This will not be a problem for many of them," Dirk Ryckaert, chairman of Milcobel, told the Belgian news medium. Farm life. He estimates that 90% to 95% of the interested parties meet these requirements.
An open cooperative
Since Milcobel is a cooperative, it does require a financial contribution from the members. The spokesperson for Milcobel says that this is €5 per 100 liters of milk delivered. The contribution of this amount may be spread over 9 years.
The same spokesperson indicates that Milcobel is a controlled, open cooperative. This means that dairy farmers can become members if they wish; provided there is enough space. The spokesperson confirms that some dairy farmers have already switched to Milcobel; this mainly concerns the larger dairy farms.
According to Milcobel, how many new members are welcome depends on a number of factors, such as market conditions. That is why the cooperative cannot specifically indicate how many new members there is room for.