Unity is strength and they understood it well. Dairy cow farmers from Mayenne, Sarthe, Indre-et-Loire and Maine-et-Loire have come together to form an organization of producers, the Three Rivers PO. It was officially recognized last July. The breeders are 397 at the moment, including 203 in Mayenne, and all of them sell their milk to the industrialist Savencia, a competitor of Lactalis.
Better negotiate the selling price with Savencia
The breeders of the PO des Trois Rivières are in fact divided into three zones, which correspond to three Savencia factories. It is at the beginning of 2020 that this OP project germinates in their minds, with one objective: weigh more heavily in negotiations with the industrialist, to obtain a better selling price for their milk.
“In the three zones, we realized that the number of members was gradually decreasing, and that reduced our negotiating strength”, recount Marie-Laure Bechepois, breeder from Mayenne. “We didn’t already know, so we thought we could work together and, why not, get together…”
– Mathilde Bouquerel
A price formula developed by breeders
The strength of the PO des Trois Rivières is that the breeders have developed their own “pricing formula”. This is a mathematical formula that guarantees them a minimum sale price, despite market fluctuations.
Anthony Daubert is the vice-president of the organization, he is also a breeder from the north of Maine-et-Loire, on the border with Mayenne. He is one of those who developed this formula. “There is everything in farmers, we are not only on our tractor or with our cows”, he says. “Everyone has a variety of skills, some more in communication, we were more in computer science and maths. We did a lot of Excel spreadsheets, calculations … It was a lot of work: at least one meeting one evening a week, not to mention the individual work of each one.”
– Mathilde Bouquerel
For now, the Three Rivers do not have their own brand, identifiable on the shelves, but it is in the works. In the meantime, milk from the Three Rivers is used in the composition of cheeses such as Fol-Epi, Chamois d’or or Caprice des dieux.