'We have got a good relationship' - Morrisons signs up to Arla 360 scheme

Graham Wilkinson, agriculture director at Arla Foods UK, said it was about the cooperative staying one step ahead of the legislation, so it can promote and defend itself and its standards.

“In some areas we can promote the positives. In others we can defend ourselves,” he said.

The scheme looked at core areas including business resilience and animal health and welfare, which Mr Wilkinson said was particularly a key area of concern for consumers.

A farmer group had helped the cooperative develop the scheme and Mr Wilkinson said farmers had been ‘really supportive.

“We are very ambitious. They want us to be at the forefront.”

Farmer benefit

Mr Wilkinson said farmers would benefit from joining the scheme.

“We recognise it is a high level programme, there are costs so there is a cost compensation element,” he said.

He added farmers would also benefit from their resilience programme, including farmer workshops and benchmarking.

Arla farmers aligned with Morrisons have received the standards programme through the post and would transition over the next six months.

The programme was voluntary, although compulsory under the Morrisons scheme, and the farmers could now decide if they wanted to proceed. If not, the offer would be extended to other Arla farmers.

Mr Wilkinson added he was really pleased Morrisons had made the commitment.

“In fairness, they have been watching with interest for some time. We have got a good relationship with them,” he said.

“We have developed a programme which has got a buy in from two major customers. We are in very positive discussions with other customers too.”

Morrisons

Sophie Throup, Agriculture Manager at Morrisons said: “Being supplied by farmers who care about their staff, environment and the welfare of their animals is important to our customers and therefore it is important to us.

“We are looking forward to working with Arla on introducing their 360 standard to our pool of farmers.”

Arthur Fearnall, a Morrisons aligned owner and member of Arla’s board of directors, said the more support Arla 360 secured the more farmers could participate.

“Creating one standard for our customers that leads the UK industry, provides increased financial return for farmers and flexibility for research and development to continuously improve our industry.

“We are delighted that Morrisons will be investing in Arla UK 360 across its entire Arla milk supply meaning around 200 farmers will benefit from their additional support.”