Valio co-operatives Osuuskunta ItäMaito and Osuuskunta Maitosuomi to merge
Staff Writer |
Valio milk procurement owner co-operatives Osuuskunta ItäMaito and Osuuskunta Maitosuomi are to merge ready to launch on 1 September 2019.
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The chairman of the board of each outgoing co-operative signed the merger agreement on Wednesday, 29 August 2018 in Helsinki. The final decision on the merger will be made by the co-operatives’ delegate meetings this autumn.
The new co-operative will be named Osuuskunta Maitosuomi, domiciled in Lapinlahti. The merger will enable the further development of services for dairy farmer entrepreneurs and greater resource efficiency.
The new co-operative will be Valio’s largest single shareholder with 20 849 shares (42.7% of the total 48 861), leading also for raw milk intake at around 900 million litres per year.
Osuuskunta Maitosuomi has a little over 1100 dairy farmer entrepreneur members and Osuuskunta ItäMaito just under 1600. Osuuskunta Maitosuomi’s raw milk volume intake was around 364 million litres in 2017 and ItäMaito’s some 519 million.
Together, the co-operatives supply nearly half of the raw milk volume taken in by Valio. Osuuskunta ItäMaito’s offices are based in Lapinlahti and those of Osuuskunta Maitosuomi in Seinäjoki. Of the 23 dairy farmer members on Valio’s Supervisory Board, four represent Osuuskunta Maitosuomi while ItäMaito has six.
The new co-operative is set to start operating at the beginning of September 2019, in which case the first election of delegates will be held in autumn 2019. In the meantime, a Board of Directors will be elected in late 2018 for the transition period to ready the merged co-operative for operation and ensure the goals set for the merger will be met.
The new co-operative will be administered similarly to the current co-operatives: all members of the new body have one vote in the election of delegates. The members exercise the highest power of decision in the co-operative and are represented by the delegates they elect. ■