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Boni Selection milk offers Belgian dairy farmers income security
9
June
2020
In order to offer our dairy farmers guaranteed sales and greater income security, Colruyt Group set up a partnership in 2019 with the Belgian dairy company Inex and 330 affiliated dairy farmers. In real terms, this means that participating farms receive a fixed price of 34.76 cents/litre for a fixed percentage of their milk volume for a minimum of five years. Since 1 April 2020, the first milk from this project has been on the shelves under our own brand Boni Selection.
Fixed price for 5 years
Together with Inex, we have carried out exhaustive research to determine the fixed milk price. We are convinced that the fixed price of 34.76 cents/litre will offer dairy farmers greater income security and allow them to continue to invest and grow in a sustainable manner. The price will remain fixed for five years. Every year we will also apply a transparent indexation mechanism so that the price stays in line with the dairy farmers’ cost increases. Additionally, the in-store prices will continue to follow those of our competitors.
30 million litres of milk per year
To make this project work, a minimum volume of 30 million litres per year was required. This target volume was reached in February 2019, once 330 dairy farmers had signed up. After the partnership was formally established, Inex invested in a state-of-the-art production line to cope with the increased volumes. We have worked on jointly developing special, easily recognisable packaging and labels for our tasty milk products. There are 13 new products, including Boni cream, skimmed, semi-skimmed and full-fat milk, which have been available at Colruyt, Spar and OKay since 1 April 2020.
Special packaging
We have decided to use innovative packaging that is easy to use for our customer and offers optimum protection for our milk. The packaging offers some new benefits for customer at home: there is no longer an aluminium tag and opened bottles can now also be stored horizontally in the fridge.
New milestone in our agricultural policy
The initiative fits in with our ambition to support local farmers. “A transparent, stable milk price puts an end to the major price fluctuations that Belgian dairy farmers often have to contend with. We are helping to build a sustainable business model with added value for all players in the chain,” says Stefan Goethaert, Managing Director Fine Food and Retail Services, with responsibility for Colruyt Group's agricultural policy.
In recent years, we have intensified our support for the Belgian agricultural sector. For example, we participated in the support mechanisms for milk (2015) and pork (2016), and started collaborative projects with various partners in the fruit, pork and organic vegetable sectors.
With this initiative, we contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
