Bankruptcy of Almil causes unrest among Bavarian farmers

In the Bavarian dairy sector, unrest has arisen following the bankruptcy filing of Almil. The shareholders of this company asked in mid-August to pull the plug, due to excessive losses. In the meantime, it kept operating, but now the employees have gone on strike and the farmers are also no longer delivering milk. This does not seem entirely to be the scenario the shareholders had in mind. There was still enough money to continue paying salaries until the end of October and to keep processing milk. The farmers, united in several supplier cooperatives, have decided not to wait for the end. They have stopped deliveries and are now selling the milk through other channels. At present, that is no problem, because prices are relatively high. However, the market now has to absorb an extra volume of 150 million kilos of milk on an annual basis. The unrest is caused not only by the bankruptcy filing and the sudden halt in processing, but also by Almil's majority shareholder. This is coöperation Hochwald Foods, the company that until 2018 owned the later Almil. Hochwald divested the company because it would no longer be profitable. That is when Almil was created, which continued the factory in Weiding. In 2020, Hochwald quietly stepped back in, but as a private shareholder. Almil mainly produced milk powder and butter, plus some liquid dairy products. In August this year, Hochwald concluded that the losses at Almil had become too high and filed for bankruptcy. Many Bavarian farmers find this disappointing and also not in keeping with a cooperative dairy company.