French dairy cooperative Sodiaal is reorganising its production chain for Emmental cheese. More generally, it is preparing for increased competition, also in view of the merger of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel.
For that reason, Sodiaal aims to pay a milk price including surcharges of approximately €50 per 100 litres this year, it has announced. The cooperative is still a little way off that target, because for February and March it pays a basic price of €47,00 per 100 litres. On top of this price, there are often a few surcharges, but the €50 has not yet been reached.
The price level mentioned is primarily intended to offer its own members a good income, but also to stand firm in the expected competition in the north of the country with the merger company FrieslandCampina-Milcobel, managers recently told French media.
Reorganization of the production chain
One of the measures to improve performance is a reorganisation of the production chain for Emmentaler. Sodiaal is increasingly being affected by cheese companies in Northern Europe, which also produce Emmentaler, and then for the private label market. This is reason to start cutting its own production costs for Emmentaler. The relatively small factory in Malestroit (capacity 15.000 tonnes) will be closed in a few years and production will be transferred to Montauban de Bretagne, where a larger factory is located, which already produces 55.000 tonnes of Emmentaler per year.
Production in Malestroit is relatively expensive and modernisation and capacity expansion there ultimately yields less profit than expansion in Montauban. Emmentaler is an important product for Sodiaal. A quarter of the cooperative's 4,2 billion litres goes into the production of this cheese.