With milk alone is not enough

The important thing is to be clear that, although sometimes your knees hurt, you can reach the finish line.And the companies that have taken the lead in that race can act as a hare for those who want to come behind.Because there is no small project.It all adds up.From more modest companies such as Kalekói, with their artisan products, to the developments that the Aira cooperative is carrying out at the Galacteum plant, in Melide.Not to mention projects such as Bico de Xado, of Provincial Agricultural Cooperative of A Coruña, or Xanceda Casa Grande.In Galicia, according to the data of the Health Rexistration of Food and Food Companies (RGSEA) there are 127 companies dedicated to the transformation of milk in Galicia, many small cheeses such as the multipremized Moniz Airs or even farms that pack their own milk as Gandeiría Conde da Xesteira, in the region of Deza.

«When we started fifteen years ago, the industry that was in Galicia were practically all milk packagers, grooves of the different denominations of origin or that made bar cheese.Larsa and Clesa made yogurts, but their weight was very small.The change that has occurred since then is quite impressive.There is Entrepinares, Inleit, all the development that CLESA has carried out by Clun's hand ....The evolution of the Galician dairy industry is very large and it will be even more in the future, ”says the general director of Quescrem, Sergio Martínez.

Accelerating that revolution is also essential to achieve the profitability that farmers claim, avoiding the thinning of that productive fabric that have managed to forge over the past twenty years thanks to millionaire investments in genetics, technology, improvement of animal welfare, nutrition ...Of course, the increase in value of this transformed raw material must reach the producer to ensure its economic sustainability.The opposite would be catastrophic for the farmer, but also for an industry that does not hold without cows.

Galicia produces around 40 % of milk from all over Spain and its big problem when getting prices that cover production costs, especially after the latest increases in raw materials or energy, it is largely that dependenceof liquid milk.«The farms are noticing that cost of costs, but the worst is yet to come because many already had bought the feed or forages before the last increases.In the event that the upward trend of raw materials is maintained, the real problem is yet to come in case prices are not uploaded, ”says José Manuel Andrade, director of the Juana de Vega Foundation.

The farmers are not oblivious to the fact that what is happening to them responds to an economic situation that plays a wide range of sectors, from the metal to transport.Their problem is that they produce a perishable raw material that they have to order every day and the industry is not paying enough and to cover their production costs, something that goes totally against the law of the chain, whose last reformIt will be approved on Thursday at Congress.And they even warn that the proportional part of the latest price marked cardboard increases announced by some distribution chains a few months ago has not reached their pockets a few months ago.From Lactalis or Capsa, industries in which the protests of the farmers in Galicia have put the focus, they defend themselves alleging that they are open to dialogue, but the protest measures adopted by the producers do nothing but put sticks on the wheel to the wheelnegotiation.And they call everyone from the hand to solve a problem, that of the cost rise, of which the industry is not alien.At the moment, the war remains open and from agrarian unions urgently urgently urgently urgently urged battle.

At the bottom of this strip and loosen."When the price formation in the dairy sector is analyzed, it must be taken into account that the big problem of Spain, something that is not now, is how the value chain in the domestic market works," explains Luis Calabozo, general director, directorof the National Federation of dairy Industries (FENIL).In this regard, he explains that in the rest of the countries of Europe, contrary to what happens in our territory, the commodities weigh a lot (the price of powdered milk, butter or cheeses such as bar) in the formation ofPrices: «When there is an excess of supply of these products, prices go down: but when their quotes upload, they also go up very quickly.That also moves to the consumer with speed.But it is something that does not happen in Spain because price formation has to do with the internal market.Contrary to what happens in the case of oil, the milk does not rise in the linear when these increases occur in the commodities ».

Therefore, a solution to put land in the middle of this dependence on the internal market is diversification.Above all, he adds, «Remove high value -added products as a cheese focused on export.We talk about large cheeses, denominations of origin that are exportable ....Vertical integration is important to play the most win or at least lose ».

From agrarian unions, his secretary xeral, Roberto García, corrects these arguments in understanding that they are biased.He explains that, although it is true that there is still 40 % of milk that is not transformed, the rest does it: «o Great problem and that Ao GandeirLeite UHT high -end, Senon that goes for a distribution brand.And iso that ties that non -linear and agora prezo is by riba two sixty cents ».

What is clear is that the recipe that only with liquid milk is not enough is something that Galicia has known for more than twenty years.The problem is that, until not long ago, it did not go from being a theory.Already in February of the year 1.999, a couple of months before Leyma was bought by the then Andalusian Puleva, making the dream of the Galician dairy group jump through the air, the then conselleirGuarantee the competitiveness of Galician companies in foreign markets only with milk, although it would have to be the dairy industries that would have to make decisions in this regard, "co -unequivocal apoi do galego governor".

Con leche solo no basta

The message was there, hidden under the slab that meant the failure of the dairy group.During the two subsequent decades, farmers were preparing to compete with the best farms in Europe.They insisted and succeeded.In 1999, Galicia produced around 30 % of the milk throughout the state, now produces around 40 %.And all with much less farms that a decade ago.

Galicia has transformed 27 % more milk into only three years, but the increase is not enough

The point is that 2.787 million tons of milk collected in Galicia in 2019, were transformed into community 1.594 million tons (57.2%), according to the data collected in a report on the industrial transformation of milk published this year by the Juana de Vega Foundation.The fact, as indicated by the document, "afflicts once more to weakness of industry installed in Galicia, which is not able to transform no territory of the 43% of leite to be relieved".However, he acknowledges that the evolution of recent years shows a shy change of course by having gone from transforming 48 % of the milk milked in the Galician farms at 57.2 % in just three years.«Estes Porcentaxes represent about 350.000 tons of equivalent leite, checking rear of 1.6 million liters transformed ».This implies a 27.7 % increase between 2019 and 2016.

But there is a second nuance that shows how the dependence on liquid milk is a wall that, although its height goes down, it is still difficult to jump.It is that of those 1.6 million tons that became the community in 2019, 55.9 % are industrialized to end packaged as liquid milk in a cardboard.It is true that not all the UHT milk (the one that ends in a Brick) is the same, nor does it have the same quality, nor its price is equivalent in the linear.When analyzing that same factor in the State as a whole, the percentage drops to 32.5%.In short, the data shows that more than 40 % of all the liquid milk we use in Spain to cast the coffee or make the bechamel industrialized in Galicia.The problem is that it is a low value added product.

However, the Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Santiago, Xurx.Although there are also.Some examples are unicla, a UHT milk with a nutritional profile different from others that can be found in the market due to animal feeding, developed by Feiraco within Clun.Or the recent launch in Spain by the farmers grouped in Leite Noso within their delight brand, the milk A2, much more digestible than the conventional.Those same farmers bought the monfortinaquesos pradoel last April, associated with the Chinese group Yeper Dairy, owners of Oviganic, dedicated in Monforte to the transformation of sheep's milk and goat to transform in serum and milk powder.

But you have to be optimistic, such as Sergio Martínez.Because although the 2019 data cross.Because it will be then when the footprint that is leaving the implementation of Inleit or the expansion of plants such as Entrupinares ... and more projects that are in portfolio.In fact, according to the data provided by Inleit Ingredients, Galician Subsidiary of Grouping Industrial Dairy (Liasa) during the past year, 200 million liters of milk from 200 agricultural farms and three cooperatives processed and three cooperatives.For this year, as advanced, "based on closed contracts, the level of production and market" hope to end the exercise with "265 million liters of milk collected to Galician farmers for their transformation into dairy derivatives, a 32,5% more than the previous year ».

That amount would mean around 9.8 % of Galician production, a percentage that should be added to milk industrialization data in 2019.The same would happen with the production of the new cheese production factory that the Entrepinares group launched in 2019 to make block cheeses, a plant that is equipped with a totally disruptive technology in Spain.

The work carried out by these companies is precisely an example of where the dairy sector should look at to advance in that industrial revolution.It is also said by the stratexing for dynamization of the Galego Milky Sector prepared by the Ministry of Rural Aff.Last November, during the act of presentation in society of the document, the president of the Xunt".Only Feijoo added something else to the message: "Iso Ten to give in innovation", something that does not get tired of repeating his Ministry of Rural Affairs, José González.Because the strategist is very clear about a goal.It is that on the horizon of 2025, 75 % of the milk that occurs in Galicia, is nourished by added value in the community.How?Transforming into products that offer something more to the consumer who, in the end, is the one who sends.

El grupo Entrepinares ha apostado por cerrar el ciclo en sus plantas de Vilalba

And the industry agrees: «The dairy sector constitutes one of the main engines of Rural Gallego.To boost the quality of these productions and underpin the productive fabric, it is necessary that the industry transforms, in the region itself, the raw material into added value products, ”says sources from the Entrepinares group, a company that closes the cycle (production of production ofCheese, serum and processed generation for commercialization) in its Vilalba complex.

A new industry that looks far beyond the linear

Do not depend on the linear (the positioning of the products in the supermarket) and look for a robust product capable of traveling around the world is another of the formulas to which the industry begins to grab.«No super non you can compete big cos.É Moi Caro », explain sources from the industry.It is precisely one of the secrets of Quescrem, the brand under which its Innolact products packages.The 180 -degree turn that gave a highly dependent on liquid milk when they were born fifteen years ago was precisely thanks to a byproduct of that liquid milk that still weighs the competitiveness of the sector.«We were a group of researchers who worked in the field of new technologies in the dairy sector to which, due to the change of paradigm in milk consumption when passing from the whole to the semi -democ.of liquid milk, ”explains Sergio Martínez, general director of Quescrem.What that group of researchers saw in 2006 is that they worked in a place where in a radius of between 25 and 30 kilometers there was a high degree of concentration of dairy industries _ Lactalis, in Vilalba;Puleva, in Lugo;Capsa, in Outeiro de Rei;River milk in Lugo;Then Celtic Milk and now Naturleite, in Meira _ that at that time they had a problem: «Then the EU was surplus in butter, but when denatar the milk, the industry had a lot of cream.With it I made butter because it was the way to stir the cream.When making butter a co -product is generated that is the mazz that did not know what to do with it.That was what we did, to think about what to use it because its characteristics are very similar to those of half -nacked milk, ”he recalls.And what they saw was that it was a perfect ingredient to make cream cheese.«With the technology we had developed we obtained a cream cheese using mazada and cream.The result was spectacular.We presented the idea to the industry, but as it was very anchored in liquid milk, it was not diversified and had a low decision -making power to be in the hands of multinationals, because no one opted for it.So as we seemed interesting, that group of researchers bet on innovating ».Now fifteen years later they have 96 employees, they invoice about 16 million euros and think about undertaking an investment that would double their current productive capacity by two and a half.

Creating a robust product, capable of crossing the seas to reach the five continents is a recipe with which the Clun Cooperative is also working, which does not rule out alliances with other operators in the sector to continue their growth strategy.Clun looks beyond the domestic market and hence its effort to promote acolat-class products, the first Spanish capital yogurt manufacturer, specifically Galician, from the country.His dessert Cream Bombón de Clesa is, in fact, leader of his range throughout the state.

CLUN dará un giro a su planta de Acolat-Clesa de Caldas con el desarrollo de nuevos productosCAPOTILLO

Sources from the Cooperative, which in December will have a participation in Acolat of more than 75%, confirm that they are betting very strongly on the Caldas plant.In fact, last year the Ministry of Economy had announced that this factory, as did Inleit's in Curtis, welcomed an open milk transformation center to third parties.With a total cost of 9.5 million euros (economy would contribute 5), both would be part of the Galicia's reactivation and economic dynamization plan after the pandemic.«There is an investment in new lines, formats and desserts to make developments focused, above all, to the industrial product.One of his most prominent projects is, in fact, the long -term yogurt that has up to a year of life, which has allowed them to put a spicy in Asia, Africa and South America, ”explain those same sources.In addition, the demand of consumers has been advanced with the milk line, yogurts or desserts of CLESA Bienatur.

The foreign market is also a clear objective for Inleit."During this year we expanded the introduction of our products in different international markets, with presence in about thirty countries, which allows us to say that more than 50 % of the billing comes from the international market," explain company sources.In 2020 its turnover reached 61 million euros, while the expectation is to end this year reaching 117 million euros, practically 92 % more than the previous year.

La planta de InLeit en Curtis cuenta con una de las tecnologías más avanzadas dentro del sector Gimena Berenguer

It is not strange to see the evolution of the activity within the Curtis factory: «During the second semester we have added new products to our range of functional products, derived from dairy protein, which is allowing a large part of the commercialization to beof products with greater value, both at nutritional level and market demand, ”they say.

Another proof that this is the way is the change in strategy that since his father Carmen Lence's witness has given the Lence group, traditionally linked to white marking milk packaging (MMD).In fact it is very clear: "Of course, it is very difficult to compete only with UHT liquid milk, we need to put added products, innovation in the market that allow us greater margins and thus be able to move part of this value to the farmers", assures the CEO of this company.In fact, thanks to a collaboration agreement with the USC dairy products classroom, it has developed several product lines that go beyond liquid milk.An example is the range of "opti pro", aimed at athletes.

Having started that industrial revolution in dairy is also a challenge for companies.You have to stay in the race without losing bellows.Collaboration with the University is fundamental and, as Carmen Lence says, "very important".In this sense, remember that your company collaborates with the Lactea classroom for the development of new products, "but also in a pilot project to help farmers to be better companies and also offering work practices".

There the digital transformation also comes into play: «The industry has to bet on digital transformation to be competitive and not only in terms of facilities or processes, but also in terms of sustainability.Digitization is an essential weapon to face the path to a circular and sustainable economy, ”they say from Entrepinares.

But the great handicap is the demand for talent: "What we have to be very clear," explains Sergio Martínez - is what the needs of the industry will be.It is clear that they are the generational relief and have the necessary talent to supply the companies that we want to develop ».And Carmen Lence understands that "talent is fundamental because companies are made by people, if you have good people, with talent, desire and involved with the company you have a good part of the recipe for success".The problem, he adds is that "it is not easy to find people like that, especially in small cities, having fewer companies makes less talent, it is the fish that bite the tail".

Like them from Entrepinares they also believe that "training, research and innovation are fundamental axes to obtain specialized professionals to meet the demands of the dairy industry".Because the industry wall in this background in which it is immersed is the lack of qualified personnel.Some even think about riding their own training centers.But that is another story.



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