Lactalis, the world’s number one in milk, will reduce its collection on French farms

The announcement had the effect of a bomb on many French farms. Not surprising when it comes from the world’s number one in milk. On Wednesday evening, the Lactalis group announced the reduction of milk collection on farms in France from the end of 2024. A significant drop “of around 450 million liters” each year according to the agri-food giant based in Mayenne. Lactalis, owned by the very rich and discreet Besnier family, collects more than 5 billion liters of surplus milk each year from French farmers, which it then exports to international markets.

While the period is considered “difficult” for the world’s number one milk producer, Lactalis has specified that it wants to “give farmers time” to organize themselves, predicting a gradual decline in volumes collected from 2024 to 2030.

A cooperative excluded

The first stage of reduction concerns 320 million litres and will mainly affect the eastern and southern areas of Pays de Loire by 2026 (i.e. 160 million litres of milk) as well as the non-renewal of a contract with a cooperative by 2030 (160 million litres of milk), the press release states without indicating which cooperative will be concerned. “Today is a difficult decision for us, who have always managed to collect surplus milk in France and to promote it internationally,” the group adds.

The announcement was experienced as “an explosion” by the head of the FNSEA, the majority agricultural union. “For us, the challenge this morning is to ensure that milk producers will continue to find someone to collect their milk. It’s an explosion for the dairy industry,” said Arnaud Rousseau on France Info. “This disengagement from the French dairy industry is unacceptable,” denounced the National Federation of Milk Producers, which accuses Lactalis of “wanting to offer more imported milk to French consumers.”

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At the beginning of 2024, a price war broke out between the agri-food giant and the Union of Producers. The price for the months of January, February and March was finally set at 425 euros per 1,000 liters for basic milk, five euros more than the industrialist’s last proposal.

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