India, April 29 -- Valio's sustainability bonus is an important part of the sustainability work of the entire Valio milk production chain. The sustainability programme focuses on improving animal welfare, increasing outdoor exercise for animals, reducing the farm's carbon footprint and farming practices that support biodiversity. The sustainability programme is developed annually; through it, in 2025 nearly EUR 60 million will be paid to the dairy farmers that own Valio.
Valio's sustainability programme is being updated as of 1.5.2025. For actions that are obligatory to all farms, 1 cent per litre of milk will be paid. In addition, farms can collect up to two extra cents per litre of milk by choosing voluntary actions and can receive another extra cent per litre of milk for carbon farming. Establishing and managing wetlands will be a new action under the programme. The maximum sustainability bonus a dairy farm can receive is thus four cents per litre of milk delivered to the dairy. For the average farm of 60 cows, this means more than EUR 20,000 per year.
Valio pays the majority of its operating profit to the owner cooperatives in the form of the milk producer price. All of Valio's approximately 3,200 dairy farms are committed to the sustainability programme, which covers nearly 80% of the milk produced in Finland. Valio started paying a sustainability bonus in 2018 as part of the milk price paid to owners. The sustainability bonus is compensation for dairy farm-level sustainability actions that go beyond legal requirements.
"Sustainability on dairy farms is built on concrete, measurable actions that we can verify through our sustainability programme. Through our sustainability programme's actions, we are promoting the issues that our customers, i.e. retail chains, industrial customers, restaurants and consumers, consider important when making purchasing decisions," notes Valio'sUlf Jahnsson, Vice President, Primary Production and Milk Procurement.
94% of Valio's dairy farmers chose voluntary actions for 2025. The most popular voluntary actions were climate actions, such as carbon farming and carbon footprinting, as well as actions related to the welfare of cows and young cattle and outdoor exercise. In the upcoming growing season, carbon farming will be carried out on around 1,800 farms and more than 200,000 hectares of arable land. The aim of carbon farming is to minimise climate emissions from farming, sequester carbon in the soil and promote biodiversity. 82% of the farms will graze some of their livestock groups this summer. Grazing contributes not only to animal welfare but also to biodiversity. Year-round outdoor grazing is also becoming more popular, with more than 20% of farms allowing cows to go outdoors all year long.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from FoodTechBiz.