Arla members can discover the surcharge peak themselves

This is what Arla employees say in an explanation of the new system, which will apply from July 1 this year. The main goal behind the sustainability approach is that Arla wants to achieve a total of 30% less CO2 emissions at farm level in more than seven years than in 2018. Arla is not rigid in this regard, because it ultimately does not matter whether the members in one country do something. managed to achieve more reduction than in the other. As long as they achieve the big goal together.

And Arla has been working on a limited scale for some time, especially through the Climate Check, a program that encouraged farmers to take a number of measures in advance. They could earn more than €1,00 extra per 100 kilos of milk. Since July, this program has been part of the broader sustainability approach. The Climate Check resulted in a 1% CO2 reduction per year, but the pace must increase to reach 2030% by 30.

Realistic maximum
A new program has been developed for this purpose. In theory, farmers can score 80 points, with each point worth €0,03 per kilo. This could result in a plus of €2,40 per kilo, but a practical maximum of €2,10 per kilo seems more realistic, Arla indicates. The dairy giant has to deal with many different types of companies, which have to operate under widely varying natural conditions.

Not everything is easy to direct or keep under control. Yet there are also farmers, including in the Netherlands, who manage to score more points than Arla itself had anticipated. That was already apparent on the first scoring round. As a result, Arla had to pay out more premium than expected, but is also closer to the intended goal. Arla also explained why it reduced the reimbursement for Vlog food again in May. An internal monitoring committee noted that feed prices had fallen sharply again after a peak last year. This was a reason to also reduce the compensation to the old level.