Sectorrapportage Duurzame Zuivelketen: prestaties 2017 in perspectief

Through the Sustainable Dairy Chain (Duurzame Zuivelketen) initiative, dairy companies and dairy farmers strive for a future-proof and sustainable dairy sector together. The Sustainable Dairy Chain has formulated targets in the area of four sustainability themes. This sector report provides an overview of the progress on those objectives in 2017. The Sustainable Dairy Chain actively pursues these goals for all of the themes in which it is involved. There has been progress in many of themes when comparing 2017 to 2016. The targets are achieved in the themes of responsible use of antibiotics, energy efficiency, and sustainable soy. The results have only declined for lifespan. The phosphate reduction plan, and the associated decrease in the number of animals, had a significant impact on the 2017 results. The phosphate ceiling for livestock farming as a whole was no longer exceeded in 2017, however, the sector ceiling for dairy farming was. A positive development in 2017 is that a downward trend was visible in the greenhouse gas emissions by the dairy chain for the first time. Preliminary figures show that this is also true for ammonia emissions. However, both themes are also still a long way from their target. Sustainable energy production is also still far from the theme’s target. There is an upward trend for grazing, and the targeted level of 81.2% of farms with grazing is within reach. Animal welfare and biodiversity had no targets set at the sector level in 2017, but progress was made in the development of the monitoring system.