The Hochland company takes a stake in the Israeli company "Remilk", which advertises that it can produce milk without every cow.
The cheese manufacturer sees the new raw material as an addition to its product range.
Farmers in the region are appalled.
Schongau
- "I think the development is worrying," says the district chairman of the Bavarian Farmers' Association (BBV), Wolfgang Scholz, about the new milk.
Scholz says that it could reduce soy cultivation in the rainforests.
“But the cow belongs in the foothills of the Alps,” the Sachsenrieder farmer makes clear.
However, he emphasizes that he will not comment on the Hochland plans because he simply did not know them up to that point.
Hochland in Schongau: Company relies on artificial milk from Israel - district chairman considers development to be worrying
Upon request, Hubert Staub, CFO of Hochland SE, announced that at the beginning of December 2020 a minority stake by Hochland in the company "Remilk" had been contractually sealed.
The Israeli start-up uses microbial fermentation to produce proteins that are functionally identical to milk proteins.
"This can be used to make dairy products that do not differ from products made from animal milk," says Staub.
Hochland: “Remilk” products are no different from products made from animal milk
A dairy farmer from the Schongau region is appalled.
"We farmers are always told that there is too much milk on the market, and then they do something," complains the man, who does not want to be named.
Hochlands CFO emphasizes that the company will continue to manufacture classic dairy products.
He justifies his participation in “Remilk” with the fact that “more and more people are eating completely or partially without animal food”.
Hochland sees the raw material developed by "Remilk" as "an interesting addition to our cow's milk cheese."
We farmers are always told that there is too much milk on the market and then they do something like that.
Dairy farmers from the Schongau region
Thomas Bertl, who as the board member of the Schongauer Butterwerk speaks for around 620 milk producers in the region, is therefore still quite relaxed about the artificially produced milk.
“They just want to be there,” says the Wildsteiger about the entry into the highlands in Israel and emphasizes that many others belong to the group of investors.
Hochland in Schongau: The company will continue to manufacture classic dairy products
Bertl does not expect the substitute milk from Israel to compete with the animal milk in this country for another ten years at the earliest.
Like Scholz, however, he also refers to the great sustainability of the dairy industry in the Alpine region: "Who else can produce such high-quality food from grass as a cow?"
The butter factory boss is still calm about the development: the bigger problem is the milk price
This is one of the reasons why the start-up in Israel is only a sideline for dairy farmers in the region.
“The dairy industry has completely different problems,” Bertl makes clear for the butter factory community.
The farmers affiliated with it deliver around 170 million kilograms of milk to the Hochland plant each year, making them the largest suppliers in Schongau.
Hochland relies on artificial milk: the butter factory boss sees a bigger problem in the milk price
In the last ten years, however, the number of dairy farmers has halved, regrets Bertl and warns that this will repeat itself in the next decade: "The problem is the catastrophic milk price." Currently, Hochland pays 35.5 cents per liter of milk.
That is 0.5 to 1 cent more than the average.
"But we would need ten cents more for sustainable development."
The farmers in the Weilheim-Schongau district recently joined the nationwide protest against the insect protection law launched by the federal government: with a warning fire.
In Lechbruck, however, a conflict over a controversial hotel project is escalating more and more.
Current
from the region read here.
(By Jörg von Rohland)
