Organic milk cooperative OMSCo has announced a milk price increase of 1p per litre effective from 1 October across its milk pool.
A new cell count payment bonus of 0.25ppl will also be applied, OMSCo chairman Nicholas Saphir told its annual conference.
“The increase reflects a solid performance in all markets. This was delivered despite turbulent political and global dairy market conditions,” said Mr Saphire.
He added that for the year ending 31st March 2017, the co-op also increased its reserves to £2 million, after a 13th payment to members.
“Following our alliance in 2015 with Organic Valley, the world’s largest dedicated organic milk pool, we also announced at this year’s AGM a new alliance agreement with leading European dedicated organic dairy cooperative, Eko Holland.
“The combined volume of organic milk within this alliance will be nearly 400 million litres in Europe, and taking into account our existing US alliance, this increases to a total of 1.4 billion litres globally,” explained Mr Saphir.
'High quality'
He added the alliance with Eko Holland will give OMSCo access to a high quality organic milk supply in Europe.
“It’ll broaden our portfolio of products and increase our scale of operations. This will improve our ability to balance efficiently, enhance our flexibility to meet customer needs and provide more milk and processing in Europe,” he continued.
With aspirations for over 30 percent of OMSCo’s revenue to come from export markets, this new partnership with Eko Holland is seen as critical for the co-op.
“Having nurtured our relationship with Organic Valley, in only three years we’ve been able to generate significant opportunities both ways across the Atlantic, and we’ve not only benefited financially but also through shared expertise. We believe firmly that we will replicate this success with Eko Holland,” added Mr Saphir.
