British lap up organic milk

CHRISTCHURCH - The British market for organic milk is soaring, says Anchor Milk field officer Shane Lodge, who has just returned from a three-week study tour of Britain and Ireland.

Organic products and a high profile given to animal welfare in quality assurance were part of positioning milk as a millennium must-have in British shopping trolleys, said Mr Lodge.

Consumers also wanted to know more about what was in their milk.

Annual organic milk supply in Britain was now 30 million litres, and was projected to be 155 million litres by 2003, he said.

The British Government paid farmers about $3520 a hectare to convert to organic production, and it took two years to gain certification.

A significant amount of organic milk was also imported from Denmark.

In New Zealand, just 18 of the nation's 14,700 dairy farms are certified for organic production.

A Dairy Board spokeswoman said trade barriers and export costs made it unviable to export organic milk to key markets such as Europe and Japan, but the board kept a watching brief on the sector.

If trade barriers did drop, there would be scope to persuade some dairy farmers to switch to organic production.

Britain's organic farmers are paid 96c a litre, and traditional farmers get 54c a litre.

But Mr Lodge said the amount of supplementary feed organic farmers could give their cows was limited, and this affected production.

One farmer who was converting to organic production expected a production drop from an average 10,000 litres a cow to 6000 litres.

The cold winters and shorter seasons added to the challenge, making it harder to rely on grass.

A higher profile was also being given to animal welfare standards, including the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme.

This involved food manufacturers using livestock that were assured of the Five Freedoms: freedom from fear and distress; freedom from pain, injury or disease; freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; and freedom to express normal behaviours, such as laying hens being able to flap their wings, nest, preen, perch and dustbathe.

The Freedom Food scheme had gathered a lot of momentum since its launch five years ago, Mr Lodge said.

Organisers estimated that the number of animals helped by the scheme had risen from a million to more than 12 million; Freedom egg sales had grown from 100,000 to 54 million a month; membership by farmers, cartage contractors and abattoirs had grown from 119 to more than 2300; and the number of participating stores had increased from 400 to more than 4000.

- NZPA