Newsletter Archive:
| The Last Word: Kevin Bellamy |
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Meanwhile dairy companies, who are now increasingly trading internationally, find themselves tackling the same issues, in different countries, at the same time as other companies are doing exactly the same. All of the companies thus have a need to talk to each other on these subjects, which can conveniently be called “pre-competitive issues”, but up until recently there hasn’t been the forum to do so. Last year Fonterra’s chief executive Andrew Ferrier decided there should be one, and so he approached similar “global traders” like Dairy Farmers of America, Arla, and Campina with a view to setting one-up to fulfil that need. All of them bought into the idea, and GDP became a reality last September, when Kevin Bellamy was appointed it first chief executive. Since then global dairy giants like Nestle, Kraft, Danone, Saputo (Canada), Valio (Finland) La-La (Mexico), Glanbia (Ireland), and Murray Goldburn (Australia) have all joined as members. “The idea of the Global Dairy Platform is to help dairy companies tackle major issues on a global perspective, to help fuel demand for dairy, and to defend it. We’ll do so by co-ordinating efforts across companies, by reducing duplication of research and by increasing the effectiveness of communication between companies, and to consumers,” said Bellamy. “We’ll get the right people in one country talking to the right people in another.” One area that is a good example of the type of issue the organisation will tackle, is the obesity problem. Currently national Governments are minded to view dairy as a problem, and are targeting it to try and encourage people to reduce their consumption of dairy products. “With projections suggesting there will be 2.3 billion overweight people and 700 million obese people by 2015, we’ve got to get our messages straight,” said Bellamy. “We want to get some coordination around the science and to prove, scientifically, that dairy is not the problem, it is part of the solution. We then aim to get the global dairy industry to sign up to the same messages, so that the clear message that goes out is that dairy is good.” So far the companies GDP deal with are the truly international, globally trading giants. There aren’t any UK companies on the list, and Kevin admits GDP isn’t doing a lot of work in the UK yet. But that doesn’t mean the organisation isn’t relevant to this market. Bellamy explained: “Although the major GDP member organisation are those who trade across borders, GDP is relevant to the UK because dairy companies here want to increase demand. The UK also faces the same challenges on dairy as the rest of the world, and these must be dealt with. The issues are global. Regulators are looking from one market to another to see what other countries are doing and how they operate. We are relevant to the UK, because the issues we cover are relevant.” The two UK members of GDP are Dairy UK and The Milk Development Council, given free membership through their not-for-profit status. Were they commercial companies with a turnover greater than £2 billion US dollars and they would be paying $50,000 a year. The rate falls according to turnover, with companies with less than $500,000 a year turnover paying $10,000. “UK dairy farmers benefit from our activities because we are sharing what we do with the MDC and Dairy UK. We may not be active in the market just yet but we are working on the issues that affect it.” With the dairy industry becoming increasingly global there will also be increasing pressure on UK based dairy companies to follow, he believes. “The UK industry should be out there doing some international deals as well as looking to itself,” he says. “A bigger critical mass from some of these organisations won’t do any harm. There has to be something that gets British dairy industry up to a size that can play in the international market. If they don’t then other companies will move in on them.” When, or if, they do, GDP will be out there willing and able to help. |
Kevin Bellamy is well known in UK dairying circles as the former chief executive of the Milk Development Council. Last year, however, he moved not only organisations but continents to head-up a new international dairy body called The Global Dairy Platform (GDP). Based in Chicago, the fledgling organisation has big ideas. StraightTalk caught up with him to find out what it will be doing.