Consumers turning to dairy in pandemic

Jonathan Dixon, vice-president of foodservice at Arla Food, told the Dairy-Tech Online event that dairy has increased because of consumers looking after themselves more during lockdown and spending increasing time at home.

Dixon added: “Cheese consumption has risen by 15.7% with more people eating cheese at lunch. Yoghurt sales have risen by 4.1% and butter by 16.1%, particularly block butter sales, due to more people home baking.”

Rob Hutchinson, operations director for Muller, said the company had seen strong retail sales during the pandemic. “Cereal consumption is up 8%, which is good for milk sales. The challenge now is to maintain the level of consumption as we come out of lockdown.”

Hutchinson added: “I’m cautiously optimistic about the market outlook. The markets recovered after March last year and the global stock position is lower than we expected coming into this year, which is a good position to be in.”

However, the exception is cream, which is seeing a big mismatch in the price compared to the EU. This is largely because of Brexit and the extra export health certificates that are now required when exporting fresh products, like cream. Hutchinson said: “We hope to see the situation improve as there’s no doubt this is having an impact on the cream price.”