60 years of Dano

Although introduced in the early 1960s, the milk brand "Dano" achieved its peak popularity in the '80s and '90s, when it became a household name for powdered milk. Since then, Dano has been a companion of three generations of Bangladeshi people, with more than 60 years of goodwill, solely because of its quality.

Arla Foods Bangladesh markets milk produced at its European farms, ensuring quality and strict European food safety standards at every stage, beginning with grass production. The company's flagship brand is Dano, which is available across the country in various shopper-friendly pack sizes and prices.

Due to the continued demand and popularity, European dairy cooperative Arla Foods officially started operations in the country in 2014, although plants for repackaging were set up in 2004.

Arla is now, however, marketing many products beyond Dano. Along with its most popular products Dano Power and Dano Daily Pushti, it also offers Arla UHT, Castello Cheese, and Lurpak Butter for Bangladeshi consumers.

According to Arla officials, being consistent in maintaining quality has been one of the company's core strengths. To ensure the best quality, most nutritious dairy products, Arla controls every aspect of the value chain, or, as Arla likes to refer to it, the "Grass to Glass" process. This is attributed to their popularity and trustworthiness worldwide.

"At Arla Foods, we care for the communities in which we operate. Bringing health to the world is central to our vision, along with contributing to healthy, affordable diets for everyone. Hence, we are not only committed to ensuring that each of our products meets high-quality standards but are also proactive in creating value in our business sector," says Peter Hallberg, managing director of Arla Foods Bangladesh said.

"The company is globally recognised for its responsible behaviour, which we are also replicating in Bangladesh. We feel that we can contribute significantly to the overall development of the dairy sector, supporting the goals of the country. As one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the world, with over 140 years of dairy experience, we are in a unique position to deliver commercial success for the dairy farmers in Bangladesh while helping to develop the sector sustainably," he added.

Interestingly, Arla is owned by its farmers, who are producing milk for the company. Almost all the milk used to produce the range of Arla products are collected from cows owned by Arla Foods. To ensure the well-being of the cows, the dairy cooperative has created ArlAgården — the farm-quality management programme. That is why Arla knows what is going into their products, starting from the farming level.

Through these control and monitoring processes, Arla is building one of the largest animal-welfare databases in the world to help track the cows' welfare, from their hygiene to the composition of their milk. The collected milk is transported to various Arla facilities, maintaining the highest European safety and hygiene standards.

This safety issue is being maintained in the packaging factory of Gazipur as well. Arla officials said the Dano milk powder is repackaged in Arla Foods Bangladesh's own facility in Gazipur, which has ISO 9001:2015 and FSSC 22000 (Version 5.1) certifications for maintaining strict quality standards during every step of the packaging process

During the initial phase in Bangladesh, Arla's focus was to provide the best quality nutritious dairy products at the most affordable possible price range. Moving forward, Arla Foods Bangladesh felt that it could also contribute significantly to the overall development of the dairy sector as well as support the dairy ambitions of the country.

Arla is also working in collaboration with Pran Dairy in Bangladesh to contribute to the dairy chain of the country. In the primary phase of the collaboration, both organisations conducted farm assessments to build capacity and identify opportunities for more sustainable dairy farming solutions. Subsequently, a series of training sessions were conducted targeting trainers, extension staff, and other relevant stakeholders to supplement the ongoing dairy activities.

As a part of this collaboration, apart from strengthening the local dairy value chain, there will be further collaboration with Bangladesh Agricultural University to collect data systematically and scientifically to analyse the social, environmental, and economic impact of the collaboration.

Overall, the company is working to keep its mission in Bangladesh in mind, "To inspire and enrich Bangladesh with the goodness of Dairy, sustainably."