That comparison should not denigrate the achievements of ATM in recent years in carving out profitable categories in dairy products – mainly in Australian fresh milk and daigou sales of infant formula cans to China. Now the pilot fish has acknowledged the need for help to boost the production of A2 milk and get it into markets with wider potential than it has served until now.
For its part, the whale is interested in finding new territories where more consumer choices and health claims enrich the pickings and the added value can be passed back to farmer-suppliers. Some gut health benefits flow from the consumption of A2 milk for those people who find A1 indigestible. Over time the continued consumption of A2 should show whether more exaggerated health claims, such as the links between A1 and heart disease, Type 1 diabetes,and autism, made in the past have merit.
ATM’s late founders, Corran McLachlan and Howard Paterson, spent a long time and a lot of money patenting DNA testing of cows for A2 beta-casein and trade-marking A2 milk in most countries. Those protections now provide the opportunity for Fonterra to build an added-value stream into populous markets in southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Before his death in 2003 Paterson was reportedly close to making an agreement between ATM and Fonterra, being the largest single shareholder in both. Current ATM managing director Geoff Babidge said the companies had been talking for some time before announcing the agreement. Farmers who take the relatively low-risk route to A2 herds and the shareholders of both partners should welcome the apparent benefits ahead.
