A local product that’s not so local… “Savoy milk”, a product of the Metral subsidiary of the giant Lactalis, claims its local roots to the core. “Savoyard milk comes from farms in Savoy and Haute-Savoie, produced mainly by cows of the Montbéliarde, Tarine or Abondance breeds,” he writes.
But internet users have realized that this marketing pitch was misleading, as our colleagues at France 3 have found out. The bottling of this milk is actually done in Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne, more than 600 kilometers from the place of production. “Local, with a small detour of 1,300 km,” joked an Internet user on Twitter.
Already in 2020, a netizen had challenged the Lactalis group on this issue: “I buy in Savoie a liter of the METRAL brand of ‘Savoyard milk’ which highlights its local aspect… It is bricked up in Montauban, 600 km from there. Isn’t that right? Is there a problem?”
Lactalis explained
Contacted by France 3, the Lactalis group said it was “transparent” and explained this amazing production chain. The bottling of this milk is done in Montauban because the dairy giant would not have found “a reliable local partner that meets its quality requirements” in the Savoy sector to carry out the packaging.
Lactalis adds that “the small quantities produced do not allow the installation of a packaging line dedicated to this product” while reaffirming “its legitimacy” to indicate that this milk “supports the local sector”, because “it is collected in Savoy from [leurs] partners in Savoy and Haute-Savoie”.
Source: BFM TV
