The Dairy Farmers of America Inc., Kansas City, Kan., Global Dairy Platform are Campina, based in Holland; Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., based in New Zealand; Arla Foods, based in Denmark; and the International Dairy Federation, based in Brussels have formed a new nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand the global market for dairy products and speed the commercialization of industry research.
Kevin Belay, CEO of the U.K. Milk Development Council, will start as the Global Dairy Platform’s CEO. The new group will take “pre-competitive” research — research that hasn’t been brought to market — and function as an information clearinghouse to get the research to companies that could use it commercially.
Each of the five founding organizations put in equal amounts of money to get the new group started. Membership fees will finance the new organization. The Global Dairy Platform will have three full-time employees at its Chicago headquarters. The DFA said in a release that the new group won’t finance or conduct research but that it will promote the health aspects of milk and dairy products, focus on nutrition and support international trade.
“We want to take the best minds in the industry to see if they can come up with ideas that we can then take to manufacturers to see if they can use it in their businesses. We want to get ideas out that may not be shared fast enough.”