Comment by TraceConsult™: Besides Campina holding FrieslandCampina, the news in the company’s press release will make many other stakeholders happy, too. It is difficult to say whom the most.
To Ilse Aigner, Germany’s Minister for Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the information will probably be most helpful in the current federal election campaign. Campina is clearly the biggest brand so far to have picked up on her department’s offer launched on 1 May 2008 to label animal products as GM-free (Ohne Gentechnik). The Minister’s call for “more transparency when purchasing food” is clearly met by Campina’s Landliebe brand.
A number of consumer organizations and NGOs will delight because their demands put to the entire German food industry about 18 months ago has been met by such a big name. And on top of that, Campina fulfils the criteria without the use of any soy protein, which was another demand of many NGOs.
Rather quietly, consumers are content at their local grocer’s dairy counter because now also a national brand offers them an informed choice, after a small handful of German regional dairy producers already took off from the pole position last year.
And if increased sales figures convert well into increased profits even Campina’s owner, Amersfoort-based Royal FrieslandCampina, is likely to put on a nice smile.
We don’t know of any further parties that are happy about the Landliebe sales growth at Campina, but we see the pressure increasing on retailers and on other big brands to follow suit in offering consumers an alternative.
http://www.en.frieslandcampina.com & http://www.campina.de
GM-free Landliebe Country Milk catches on in Germany – increased sales confirm acceptance
Press Release
Heilbronn, September 2009 – While consumers altogether drink less fresh milk than one year ago and the overall market is declining1, the feeding concept of the Landliebe premium brand has shown significant success. During the first seven months of 2009, sales of GM-free Landliebe Landmilch could be increased by about 7.7 percent. This development is supported by a new, broadly laid out TV campaign that has been aired since March of this year.
“The retailers have confirmed to us that the ‘Ohne Gentechnik’ (GMO-free) seal fits Landliebe like a glove”, reports Michael Feller, Managing Director of FrieslandCampina Germany. And the labeling has contributed to the success of Landliebe Landmilch, as the figures confirm. According to Feller, the long-term goal is to achieve that the entire Landliebe product range can display the “Ohne Gentechnik” seal. There is still some way to cover, though, because by then all ingredients will have to be guaranteed free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This is a real challenge in products containing numerous other ingredients besides milk.
The feeding concept
Since October 2008, the „Ohne Gentechnik“ seal offers information to consumers on all fresh milk and UHT milk cartons on the GMO-free status of Landliebe products. This was made possible by a feeding initiative on Landliebe farms that is probably unprecedented: For instance, cows are given primarily feed that has always been cultivated in Germany and therefore can do quite well without genetic engineering, such as grass, rapeseed or lupines. At the same time, the concepts does entirely without feed imports from overseas and therefore also without genetically modified soy.
1 Source: Nielsen
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