Those who often drive across the country will notice the relics of the earlier, small-scale dairy farming in many places. Most of the dairy buildings have found a new dedication. In some communities, a street name is still reminiscent of the dairy: Eferding, Münzkirchen, Lembach, Ried… From the 1970s, the small units merged into regional, larger companies and then in 1995 into the large cooperative Berglandmilch, to deal with the confusion of EU accession together to master.
Upper Austria is the strongest dairy country. We have a quarter of the dairy farms in Austria (6,000 out of 24,000) that keep around 30 percent of the cows (160,000 out of 520,000) and also supply 30 percent of the milk. Lower Austria contributes only 19 percent, Styria 16, Salzburg and Tyrol around ten each.
Upper Austria’s importance is no longer reflected in the milk business: Berglandmilch has rationalized and closed 18 of the 27 locations. Their largest dairy is Aschbach in the Mostviertel. Above the Enns there are still two large, specialized companies, the cheese dairy in Feldkirchen near Mattighofen and the packaging plant in Geinberg (district Ried). There is a factory in Rohrbach. The cheese dairy in Garsten was closed in April this year, and that in Wels (cream cheese) should follow in a few years. Then the official Berglandmilch headquarters should also be relocated from Wels to Aschbach. Only the main brand “Schärdinger” reminds of the origin.
This is painful for old officials, also that Upper Austria is losing influence in the management bodies. This year, for the first time, a Tyrolean, Stefan Lindner, was elected the top representative of the 9,000 rural owners. Mühlviertler Johann Schneeberger no longer ran for office. The case of Gmundner Milch was also a blow to our milk competence: their cooperative management did not participate in Bergland in 1995, but went their own way with raw milk exports and discount trading. That was obviously suboptimal. Salzburg Milch overtook Gmunden as number three in Austria (behind Berglandmilch and NÖM). This year, the Bavarian private dairy Jäger has – as reported – taken over de facto command in the Salzkammergut with a 50 percent stake.
As a result, there are only smaller independent milk processors, such as the Stiftskäserei Schlierbach, the Vöcklakäserei, Seifried in Aspach, Staufer in Zipf or Biomilch Leeb in Wartberg. But in addition to these agile boats, there must also be a battleship that, like Berglandmilch, can withstand the giants of Europe. Our market leader turns over one billion euros a year, Nestlé 20 billion – just with milk.
Some dairy farmers mourn the loss of their regional dairy today. For most, however, a maximum milk price has priority in order to secure their business. Because in the past 20 years, 9,000 out of 15,000 dairy farmers in Upper Austria have stopped working.
E-mail: j.lehner@nachrichten.at
Source: Nachrichten
