Dairies in Germany: Key Factors for Grassland Conservation?

Abstract

Germany is the largest milk producer of the 28 EU Member States (statistically still including Great Britain) and dairying is the most important single sector in German agriculture. Dairies are of central importance in the value chain, but very little is known about their objectives and perspectives in relation to grassland management, feedstuffs deriving from grassland and towards resource conservation issues. This study gives an insight on the way German dairies think about and act in such topics by using a standardized survey method. The survey revealed little to no linkage between the size of dairies and their interest in conservation issues on grassland and very little consideration of extensive grasslands. Dairies are divided over questions of governance for a more sustainable milk market and on the nature of their relationships with farmers. There is evidence that the German dairy industry is willing to contribute to a more sustainable and more robust milk market, but the enterprises mostly regard other market actors as more important. According to this survey, consumers will tend to opt for more sustainable milk products in future and there are possibilities to raise the willingness to pay.

Small but powerful—local value chains and sustainability‐oriented approaches in the agri‐food sector

“…Building on Popp and Nowack's (2020) suggestion and our findings, the crucial role of consumers of agricultural products has to be considered for further research—this leads to the question of how actors in the agri‐food ecosystem can create a willingness to pay for more expensive food from sustainability‐oriented farms. Based on a recent survey of German dairies, Schoof et al (2020) suggest that consumers are ready to pay more for sustainable produce in this sector and that their willingness to pay for dairy products thus may be raised. Our case example, Hamfelder Hof in 2021 started the initiative to charge its customers 20 Eurocents more per liter milk.…”

“…In this research, new local value chains, initiated by upgrading initiatives of actors frustrated by their powerless chain positions, are of interest, next to changes in established chains. We adapt considerations and findings from the field of global value chains to dairy value chains that have been investigated to some extent recently (Grau & Hockmann, 2018; Lehmann et al, 2016; Popp & Nowack, 2020; Schoof et al, 2020). Lehmann et al's (2016) study is one of the few investigations of the German dairy value chain (undertaking a case study in the federal state of Lower Saxony).…”

“…In summary, the German dairy industry is a challenging business environment for dairy farmers. Not only retailers but also large dairies are globally successful (Grau & Hockmann, 2018; Schoof et al, 2020) and have a high power toward their fragmented and locally active cow milk suppliers. In general, the industry has been consolidating over the recent past (Lehmann et al, 2016): The retail and the dairy sector have become quite concentrated markets.…”

“…In sum, the dairy value chain as a part of the German agri‐food ecosystem includes globally successful dairies and retailers (Grau & Hockmann, 2018; Schoof et al, 2020). It “is characterized by power and information asymmetries, which influence the price‐making decision to the disadvantage of the farmers” (Lehmann et al, 2016, p. 54).…”

Socio-Economic Transformations in Ukraine towards the Sustainable Development of Agriculture

“…Among contemporary foreign scholars, the issues of agrofood market development are studied by the following Canadian and American scientists: R. Canning et al [35]; the Polish and Ukrainian researchers, Sulewski R. et al [20]; researchers from Iran, S. Fallah-Alipour et al [36]; researchers from Germany, Schoof et al [37]; researchers from India and China [38,39]; researchers from Bulgaria, Bachev H. and Terziev D. [40]; and many others. Swedish researchers quite deeply study the problems of synergy and compromise for sustainable food production [41].…”