NoorderlandMelk carefully opens the door again

For those who don't know you: what is NoorderlandMelk?
"NoorderlandMelk has about a hundred members with an average milk volume of more than 1,1 million kilos per company. The cooperative now operates exclusively in the four northern provinces of the country, but can also recruit members from elsewhere."

You have no processing of your own. Where does the milk go?
"In 2014, we entered into a partnership with A-ware. Before that, we sold the dairy loose to various parties. We also suffered from price pressure and setbacks. Integration into the chain was necessary. For our members, this was sometimes best in the beginning. a search. We had to get used to it, A-ware grew fast. Gradually more peace returned to our cooperative. That is largely the merit of Alma, how she operated in the cooperative."

Has the relationship with A-ware remained the same all these years?
"We have an excellent relationship, but we changed the agreements slightly in 2019, so that our farmers could more easily choose which milk flow they wanted to produce. Since then, we have been able to indicate once a year what our members want to supply and how much. In the beginning we also delivered PlanetProof milk for a year. This was not followed up, but we continue to focus on added value for our members."

Don't you also have Weide Weelde milk?
"Weide Weelde is our piece of free space. We have that brand. We first tried to present it as an A-brand, but that was a difficult step. Now we still use the concept, but we produce a private label line with it. for Poiesz supermarkets under the name Noordertrots. It is nature-inclusive dairy produced, for which the participants use 15% of their area as natural soil. Noordertrots consists of fresh daily dairy and soon also butter. Although we already work partly in a nature-inclusive way, we are also working on taking further steps, for example with CO2 capture and the development of carbon credits. However, our main focus remains on good value creation of the milk itself."

What makes a supplier cooperative different from a traditional dairy cooperative with its own factory and the like?
"You don't have the ballast. We do, of course, have a strong bond with A-ware. Some people sometimes dream of their own processing, but ultimately it is about a milk price that is good for the longer term and we work together to achieve that. achieve or maintain."

You now take over from Alma den Hertog. Are you going to do things differently?
"That is not directly my intention. We are looking for further improvements and more added value on the farm. For example, members who meet the conditions of the Weide Weelde concept can now receive a lease discount from ASR and the proceeds from the collaboration with Poiesz in a fund, from which investments can be made in the new CAP. It is about looking together for benefits for the whole."