Valio milk procurement owner co-operatives Osuuskunta ItäMaito and Osuuskunta Maitosuomi are to merge ready to launch on 1 September 2019. The Chairman of the Board of each outgoing co-operative signed the merger agreement on Wednesday, 29 August 2018 in Helsinki. The final decision on the merger will be made by the co-operatives’ delegate meetings this autumn.
The new co-operative will be named Osuuskunta Maitosuomi, domiciled in Lapinlahti. The merger will enable the further development of services for dairy farmer entrepreneurs and greater resource efficiency.
The new co-operative will be Valio’s largest single shareholder with 20 849 shares (42.7% of the total 48 861), leading also for raw milk intake at around 900 million litres per year.
Osuuskunta Maitosuomi has a little over 1100 dairy farmer entrepreneur members and Osuuskunta ItäMaito just under 1600. Osuuskunta Maitosuomi’s raw milk volume intake was around 364 million litres in 2017 and ItäMaito’s some 519 million. Together, the co-operatives supply nearly half of the raw milk volume taken in by Valio. Osuuskunta ItäMaito’s offices are based in Lapinlahti and those of Osuuskunta Maitosuomi in Seinäjoki. Of the 23 dairy farmer members on Valio’s Supervisory Board, four represent Osuuskunta Maitosuomi while ItäMaito has six.
Valio’s procurement co-operatives 30 August 2018, shareholdings and raw milk volumes 2017:
- Evijärven Osuusmeijeri – 72 Valio shares, 9.4 million litres of milk
- Osuuskunta ItäMaito – 13188 Valio shares, 519 million litres of milk
- Osuuskunta Länsi-Maito – 6336 Valio shares, 196 million litres of milk
- Osuuskunta Maitosuomi – 7661 Valio shares, 364 million litres of milk
- Osuuskunta Pohjolan Maito – 8489 Valio shares, 500 million litres of milk
- Osuuskunta Tuottajain Maito – 12437 Valio shares, 239 million litres of milk