Retail sales of organic milk have rebounded, allowing Vermont’s 200 organic dairy farms to begin to increase production and — their owners hope — improve their profitability.
Effective Aug. 1, Organic Valley, a Wisconsin-based cooperative with 126 Vermont members, has removed a 7 percent production cut imposed on farmers in 2009 and will allow them to increase production at will.
Horizon Foods, part of the Dean Foods conglomerate, has rescinded the voluntary 5 percent cut it asked its 60 Vermont farmers to make last year.
Neither buyer has raised the price farmers are paid for their organic milk, but dairies can increase their income by making more milk if they choose.
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