13,500 farmers from 7 countries own Arla Foods

Arla Foods’ merger with Belgian EGM Walhorn reinforces Arla Foods’ status as the world’s most multinational farmer-owned dairy company.

As of this week, the Netherlands becomes the seventh European country in which Arla Foods has farmer owners, taking their number to approximately 13,500.

“We have continuously managed to attract more farmer owners and to work together across borders because we stand united for one thing – securing our future as dairy farmers and expand our opportunities to develop. Being an Arla Foods farmer owner means having the guarantee that, no matter the country in which we are based, our milk will be turned into high quality products sold all over the world. And the more farmers we are, the more milk we produce, and the stronger we become together in serving the world great dairy products,” says Åke Hantoft, farmer owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors in Arla Foods.

Farmers want to set a high pace

Arla Foods’ farmer-owned heritage is many years old and this way, farmers have kept the influence over what the company does. For every farmer, owning the company has meant holding the opportunity to secure the development of their farm, explains Peder Tuborgh, CEO of Arla Foods:

“Our dairy farmers can and want to set the pace, which has been high for many years – they want to ensure that profitis returned to their farms and into the company, as investments into our global dairy business. We do this together as one big multinational team of dairy farmers and employees. This mind-set has created the global Arla of today.”

Arla Foods’ cross border cooperation between dairy farmers started back in 2000, when Swedish dairy cooperative Arla merged with the Danish dairy company MD Foods. In 2011 Arla Foods merged with Hansa Milch in Germany and in 2012 with Milch-Union Hocheifel (MUH) in Germany and Milk Link in the UK. In 2013, AMCo UK members joined as Arla Foods’ co-owners too.