Where to now for A2 milk?

Westland Milk Products has reviewed its strategy on A2 milk and no longer wants to achieve 95% supply of the milk considered by some to have health benefits. The company had hoped to achieve its goal by 2019 and having done so would have given a point of difference against other milk products reports Straight Furrow. The decision to change emphasis was made after a European Food Safety Authority review of the potential health impacts of components in the milk. The report based on a review of scientific work to date, recommended that there was no need for a formal EFSA risk assessment of food derived peptides. Chief executive Rod Quin said he would have relished a strategic position with A2, however there was no commercial benefit for their customers, who required clinical proof before they could make claims about the health benefits of A2. Before the report, Westland Milk Products suppliers were working towards changing the genetic base of their herds from A1 to A2 milk to supply the company.Recent testing of milk from Westland herds showed that 62% of the milk produced was A2 and given a number of suppliers had switched genetics to A2 over the last two seasons, the percentage was likely to increase. Mr Quin said the 62% was not saying that all farmers had A2 herds, rather that there was a higher percentage of A2 in the mix. Having met with farmers recently to discuss the issue Mr Quin expected some disappointment about the company's change of strategy. "But I have to say I have not heard it pitched at me at the district meetings." He believed in the current economic times, asking farmers to modify their herds when the marketing opportunities were uncertain was a big ask anyway. Some supermarkets already stock A2 milk and it is fairly common in Australia. There were costs associated with changing genetics but many of the premium sires carried the A2 genes. "I've said to farmers if there is science which proves it then we have the insurance programme in place to switch to A2 supply and we would be up and running," Mr Quin said.