Reaping the Rewards of Supporting Dairy Farmers More by Tetra Pak
Originally published in Best Practice Winter 2015 issue
There’s a Polish proverb that goes: “If the farmer is poor, then so is the whole country”. It’s a problem that Tetra Pak is highly aware of – it recognizes the link and knows that for it to succeed and grow, it needs the markets in which it operates, to do the same.
Indeed, the food packaging company has always had a tradition of supporting sustainable development, says Ulla Holm, director of Tetra Laval Food for Development unit . With Food for Development’s Dairy Hub concept, operated through both Tetra Pak and its sister company DeLaval, this support is taken to a whole new level.
The idea stems from Tetra Pak’s role in pioneering national school milk programmes, setting up the very first school milk programme in Mexico as far back as 1962. “Even in the 1960s our founder realized that helping our customers would lead to a profitable dairy industry which would ultimately benefit our business. Support for the dairy industry value chain is in our DNA,” Holm maintains.
