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Arla Foods has announced that its 200 million kg fresh milk pool in Danish retail and foodservice will become part of its FarmAhead Customer Partnership programme.

The European dairy cooperative originally launched its FarmAhead programme in 2023 in the UK, under the name Customer Sustainability Programme.

The initiative allows customers in retail and foodservice to become partners on sustainability initiatives taking place on Arla’s owners’ farms, providing customers with access to data that can be used in their own ESG reporting and to support their scope 3 climate goals. It aims to link Arla’s data-driven emissions reduction approach with customer demands for dairy products with a lower carbon footprint.

FarmAhead’s first contracts with customers included Aldi, Asda and Morrisons in the UK, covering more than 1 billion kg of milk. Peter Giørtz-Carlsen, executive vice president and COO at Arla Foods, said that the response from customers so far has reflected a ‘strong’ interest in the green transition.

He added: “With such momentum, we are now launching our FarmAhead Customer Partnership programme across Arla’s further core European markets during 2024”.

“Through the programme, we make our extensive data available to our customers and thereby support their climate action and ESG reporting needs. In return, we unite customers with our farmer owners to build more knowledge, reduce the carbon footprint and increase biodiversity, for generations to come.”

Arla has also revealed it will consolidate various elements of its sustainability work under the name FarmAhead Technology. This includes FarmAhead Check – previously known as Climate Check – the group’s data initiative allowing it to calculate the specific climate footprint per kg of milk produced, using data uploaded by Arla’s farmer owners.

FarmAhead Incentive, formerly named the Sustainability Incentive Model, is a points-based system based on data from the FarmAhead Check. Farmers can earn points based on their activities to reduce climate impact and protect biodiversity. For each obtained point, a premium of 0.03  EUR cent per kg of milk is added to the milk price the farmer receives, with up to €500 million allocated annually.

Finally, FarmAhead Innovation will focus on exploring new technologies and refining data that can be integrated into the above elements over time.

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