Cono Kaasmakers collaborates with Ikwileerlijkezuivel.nl

Cono Kaasmakers have reached a preliminary agreement on participation in Ikwileerlijkezuivel.nl, the Dutch initiative of entrepreneur Rik Hoogenberg that earlier this year took over the production location of Ausnutria in Ommen. Hoogenberg is content with the agreement with Cono. Ikwileerlijkezuivel.nl has also started collecting milk. In the coming months, further scaling up will take place and the first products will appear on the shelves.The extent of Cono's interest, Hoogenberg does not want to disclose. Reportedly, it involves an investment of €385,000, as communicated to Cono members during the general meetings earlier this month. Cono's response only goes as far as confirming the existence of a preliminary agreement. Hoogenberg expresses his happiness that Cono is entering as a funder and partner. Cono is a relatively small-scale cooperative with strong cheese brands and focuses on quality. That aligns well with us. Moreover, we can learn how Cono implements sustainability through their Caring Dairy program. According to Hoogenberg, it is not the intention for Cono's member milk to be processed in Ommen, although that could be an option in the future. Eight dairy farmers contracted Hoogenberg further states that they have recently started collecting milk. Meanwhile, eight dairy farmers have been contracted. Milk collection will begin at these farms at some point in the coming months. Additionally, a handful of dairy farmers are on the waiting list to join. Furthermore, in the past months, about 200 dairy farmers have approached us expressing interest. The contracted dairy farmers are from Overijssel and Gelderland. Some of them are advanced in sustainability aspects like land-based farming, while others still need to make progress, as mentioned by Hoogenberg. The factory in Ommen has an annual production capacity of 120 million kilograms of milk. The first 8 million of that will be filled by Ikwileerlijkezuivel.nl itself from 2025 with the contracted volume. Greek yogurt will be made for SuperUnie. They are also considering introducing their own cream to the market. We already produce cream for our yogurt anyway. When asked if the current (record) high cream prices are the reason for this step, Hoogenberg jokingly says, Cream is indeed expensive at the moment and therefore interesting, although it will likely decrease around Christmas. Steady growth Hoogenberg's goal is to grow steadily. We can scale up, but we want to do it gradually. We opt for a controlled approach to ensure the quality we strive for. Hoogenberg will continue to use the remaining capacity of the factory for Ausnutria as agreed upon during the factory acquisition. Ikwileerlijkezuivel.nl wants to show that dairy farmers around Natura 2000 areas in the Netherlands have a future. They have signed a contract with SuperUnie for the production of Greek yogurt. Participating dairy farmers receive a premium of 12 cents per liter on the guaranteed price of FrieslandCampina with the highest sustainability surcharge.