Our member dairy farmers have rapidly modernised their farms over recent decades, often gaining a significant advantage over local farmers. This progress brings a responsibility to strengthen the local dairy sector and raise the living standards of smallholder farmers. We are eager to share our 150 years of knowledge and expertise in the agricultural sector with the world.
Growth, sustainability, and regionalisation
Through our Dairy Development activities, we support tens of thousands of local farmers each year across China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Thailand, and Vietnam. Together, we work to build sustainable dairy chains by providing training, sharing knowledge, and creating partnerships and projects aimed at improving the dairy value chain.
Our goal is to improve the quality of their milk, increase the productivity per cow and support farmers in gaining access to the market. In this way, we contribute to food security, more sustainable milk production, and improved living standards for the dairy farmers who supply us. Additionally, by regionalising dairy production, we secure our license to operate in the various countries where we are active.
Better living for farmers
In collaboration with local dairy cooperatives, we work on a more stable and fair market. For example, we help local farmers to sell their milk at a better price. Within Dairy Development, we also seek partnerships with governments, non governmental organisations and financial institutions to strengthen the local dairy industry in the long term. We support the industry by investing in milk collection centres, demonstration farms and solar panels, to name a few initiatives.
Thanks to Dairy Development, smallholder farmers are able to improve their income. In turn, that contributes towards the vitality of farming communities. We are committed to use our 150 years of knowledge and expertise to contribute to food security and the economic development of these regions.
Involving our employees and member dairy farmers
One of the unique aspects of our dairy development activities is that the knowledge sharing is often done with the help of our own employees and member dairy farmers. We arrange that through expert missions and Farmer2Farmer missions. One of the most valuable parts of the missions is that local farmers can directly implement the knowledge they receive under the supervision of our experts and ask them for further guidance and hands-on assistance.
Animal health and animal welfare
Improving animal health and animal welfare is a fundamental part of the trainings we give. The experts selected and regularly trained by FrieslandCampina for instance give a CowSignals training, a practical training focusing on animal health & welfare, housing, feed & water management and farm economics. In addition, we use the Good Dairy Farming Practices standard as a Key Performance Indicator.
