Dairy producer FrieslandCampina has suffered a loss of millions over the past year. The group lost 149 million euros. “We live in a complicated era with the war in Ukraine and high inflation, so we have to get used to a new balance,” says Dirk Bruins, dairy farmer, chairman of LTO Noord and himself a member of the FrieslandCampina cooperative.
Bruins thus endorses the dairy producer’s position: because consumers have less to spend and product prices are rising, not only are dairy products being sold less, but the profit per product is also falling.
“Disappointing”, is how Bruins calls FrieslandCampina’s loss. He finds the developments within the dairy group ‘worrying’. “This is disappointing,” he says. “In the past, this additional payment, just like a dividend payment, was a welcome addition to the annual income.”
The loss of millions has a ‘direct impact on the farm’, says Bruins. “In recent years we have often had to contend with more limited profit distributions, which means that the farmer can invest less.” In concrete terms, this means that it becomes more difficult for farmers to buy a new tractor or milking robot, for example.
Even though the dairy producer started a major reorganization worth 136 million euros last year, FrieslandCampina expects that 2024 will be another tough year. The intervention will result in the loss of 1,800 of the dairy company’s 22,000 jobs worldwide. The heaviest blow is for our country. 900 jobs will disappear here.
FrieslandCampina expects that the demand for dairy products will increase this year, but at the same time warns of higher transport, raw material and packaging costs due to ‘ongoing conflicts and geopolitical instability’.
Bruins remains positive, even though things are currently going ‘less’ for the largest dairy manufacturer in the Netherlands. “I have confidence in it. Milk is a wonderful product and is part of our diet. We have the infrastructure for it, it is of high quality here. It is not without reason that the demand for baby food in China is so high” , he says.
The dairy farmer hopes that the cooperative will step up in the short term. “Of course, as a member of the cooperative, I am of the opinion that something needs to be done internally. It will turn out fine, but we must support it together as a full cooperative,” says Bruins, who emphasizes that LTO, as an advocate, is not concerned with business operations within the dairy group. “It is up to the members of the cooperative,” he concludes.