• A dozen dairy producers from Haute-Garonne have joined forces with the YeoFrais factory in Toulouse to produce “La Brique Rose”, a liter of UHT milk sold in supermarkets and used in collective canteens.

  • Its production should make it possible to maintain milk production in the department, whose number of farmers has collapsed in recent years.

  • Thanks to this "Pink Brick", farmers are better paid and can meet the demand for products in short and traceable circuits.

“This milk is produced, put in bricks and will be drunk in Haute-Garonne, it is 100% local”, welcomes Pascal Martin.

This breeder from Montbéliardes, based in Castillon-de-Saint-Martory, is one of the ten farmers from Comminges who have joined forces to create "La Brique Rose", a liter of UHT milk soon available in supermarkets in the region. Occitanie but also canteens managed by local authorities.

Since this Tuesday morning, every hour, 15,000 bricks leave the production line of the YeoFrais factory, located in the heart of Toulouse.

"This new product will help dairy producers, in particular to stay in the region", hopes Jérôme Servières, the general manager of the company which markets 110 tonnes of dairy products each year, from cream to yogurt.

Today, he needs ambitious projects like this to motivate farmers to continue their dairy production activity, which has been losing momentum in recent years.

Without them, the survival of the Toulouse XXL dairy is in jeopardy.

“We cannot accept the desertification of our territories.

In this department, we install only one young per year in dairy production.

At this rate, in thirty years, we will be thirty.

However, when we see the consumption of milk that there is in our department, this project makes sense.

And it does not compete with other projects, there is enough room for everyone, ”says Sébastien Albouy, president of the Haute-Garonne chamber of agriculture, which supported the project.

Better pay for farmers

To succeed in convincing producers to choose this new path rather than turn to giants like Lactalis, its managers have therefore highlighted the local side and its traceability.

They also have access to communication on a subject that is increasingly raising the awareness of “consom'actors”: that of the right price.

In the wake of the blue brick “C'est qui le patron”, “La Brique Rose” displays the color on its packaging “The milk of Haute-Garonne which better remunerates its local breeders”.

The remuneration of the ten farmers embarked on this adventure will indeed be five cents above the average price per liter in France.

“When the remuneration is not worthy and sufficient, we know the situations of misery that result.

In ten years, the number of dairy farms has been halved in Occitania”, notes Carole Delga, the president of the region who supported this project which meets her ambitions for “food sovereignty”.

Within two years, 3 million “pink bricks” should be marketed each year.

“It may be the start of something”, hopes Pascal Martin who wants to believe in this short circuit.

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  • Toulouse

  • Occitania

  • Milk

  • Consumption

  • Production

  • Carole Delga

  • Economy

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  • Agrifood