We take a broad view of sustainability, which we see as being as much about achieving viable business growth as maintaining excellent environmental standards.
In South Africa, commercial growth has to include a strong focus on black empowerment. This is especially true in the agri-sector, where we need to bring new players in to augment the strength of established entities. Consequently, nurturing new entrants is a central part of Dairy Group’s growth strategy.
The Dairy Group uses the Trace & Save platform on our producer farms to foster implementation and monitoring of sustainable agricultural practices.
Trace & Save provides sustainability indicators tracked by farmers, while being advised on how to become more sustainable in their practices. These measures are also used to show consumers whether sustainable agricultural practices are being implemented on the farms from where their products are being sourced.
To attain a trustworthy, holistic measure of agricultural sustainability, Trace & Save uses various measures of on-farm indicators:
The Dairy Standard Agency (DSA) conducts annual safety audits on producers’ milking sheds, which aims to promote the compliance of milk and other dairy compositions to industry safety standards and regulations. Their programme is facilitated by the implementation of successful food management safety systems at facilities and forms part of the milk buyers and supplier quality assurance programme.
Dairy Group’s personnel are trained to conduct the DSA farm food safety audits at our producers’ farms. This is to ensure that our members are compliant with DSA’s independent safety standards and that we stay up to date with the latest industry regulations.
Our members’ adherence to crucial biosecurity processes are also assessed in these farm food safety audits. Biosecurity refers to the measures that are taken to stop the spread or introduction of harmful organisms to human, animal and plant life.
Dairy Group is the leading
raw milk buyer in South Africa,
passionately committed to
creating optimum growth and value
for our dairy producer members.
We purchase raw milk based on
volume, locality, milk composition
and quality. Our nationwide
procurement footprint makes it
easy to supply us with milk.
Our stakeholders include
milk producers, dairy
consumers, retailers,
service providers and
industry bodies.
