Pioneering organic milk cooperative, OMSCo, has made a series of announcements at its OMSCo Together event.

At the annual conference, OMSCo chairman Nicholas Saphir informed the membership that a further milk price increase of 1ppl will be effective from October 1^st across the milk pool, and a new cell count payment bonus of 0.25ppl will also be applied.

“The increase reflects a solid performance in all markets. This was delivered despite turbulent political and global dairy market conditions,” says Nicholas, who adds that for the year ending 31^st March 2017, the coop also increased its reserves to £2 million, after a 13^th payment to members.

OMSCo’s strategy to spread risk and develop international partnerships remains fundamental to their successful strategy. “Following our alliance in 2015 with Organic Valley, the world’s largest dedicated organic milk pool, we also announced at this year’s AGM a new alliance agreement with leading European dedicated organic dairy cooperative, Eko Holland.

“The combined volume of organic milk within this alliance will be nearly 400 million litres in Europe, and taking into account our existing US alliance, this increases to a total of 1.4 billion litres globally,” says Nicholas.

He adds the alliance with Eko Holland will give OMSCo access to a high quality organic milk supply in Europe. “It’ll broaden our portfolio of products and increase our scale of operations. This will improve our ability to balance efficiently, enhance our flexibility to meet customer needs and provide more milk and processing in Europe,” says Nicholas.

With aspirations for over 30 percent of OMSCo’s revenue to come from export markets, this new partnership with Eko Holland is critical. “Having nurtured our relationship with Organic Valley, in only three years we’ve been able to generate significant opportunities both ways across the Atlantic, and we’ve not only benefited financially but also through shared expertise. We believe firmly that we will replicate this success with Eko Holland,” adds Nicholas.

With a foot-hold in EU, US, Far-East and UK markets, Nicholas is confident about the future. “Cooperation and collaboration is key to future proofing businesses, as well as choosing partners with shared values and visions. We’re excited about the future and taking advantage of global market opportunities.

“Having a motivated and fairly rewarded membership will also be critical to our future success. Increasing our milk supplies is a priority as we continue to decouple organic milk from the conventional milk price by developing added value markets outside of the UK and Europe.”