FrieslandCampina intends to pay its dairy farmers a “supplementary cash payment” after the Dutch co-op’s operating profit soared to €527 million in 2024, it announced today (Tuesday, February 18).
Latest annual results from FrieslandCampina, which is one of the world’s largest dairy co-ops, show a major increase in its operating profit – after the deduction of the supplementary cash payment – for last year.
In 2023 the co-op reported an operating profit of €75 million compared to €527 million last year.
It also reported positive operating cash flow of €900 million for 2024 compared to €831 million in 2023 but the co-op’s overall revenue decreased by 1.1% to €12.9 billion as a result of “unfavourable currency translation effects” .
Dairy farms
FrieslandCampina highlighted that “good progress” had been made on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at member dairy farms which decreased by 853 kt carbon dioxide equivalent – a reduction of 9.8% in comparison to 2023.
Meanwhile the co-op said that the total “compensation” for its member dairy farmers increased by 5.5% to €4.8 billion in 2024.
According to its chief executive officer, Jan Derck van Karnebeek, last year had been a “year of transformation” for the co-op and thanks to a combination of cost reductions, an improved performance by its business groups and higher commodity dairy prices there would be an “extra reward” for its member dairy farmers.
The accounts detail that dairy farmers are set to “receive a supplementary cash payment of 1.21 euros (2023: 0,00 euros) per 100 kilograms of milk”.
They also show that the total volume of supplied member milk decreased by 3.4% from 9,369 million kilograms in 2023 to 9,050 million kilograms in 2024.
FrieslandCampina said the decrease was primarily due “to unfavourable weather conditions” and a reduction in the number of member dairy farms, which declined from 9,417 to 9,001.
It blamed this decline partly on the number of dairy farmers who have “ceased operations” and said one reason for this was “due to a lack of succession”.
The co-op also highlighted in the latest set of accounts that it “aims to pay a leading milk price” to its farmers.
“In 2024, the milk price increased by 10.1%, from 48.08 euros in 2023 to 52.95 euros per 100 kilograms of milk,” it outlined.
