New Delhi, February 17, 2021: The consumption of dairy products has boomed during the pandemic with experts cautiously optimistic about the future of the UK dairy market.
Speaking during the Dairy-Tech Online Dairy Market Overview session on Tuesday (February 16), Jonathan Dixon, from Arla Foods, explained how more people working from home had resulted in a rise in dairy sales.
“Consumers have turned to dairy in times of crisis,” he said.
“The grocery market is booming with a huge upturn and a total food growth of 10%. On the flip side, the food service sector has seen a downturn with the tough lockdowns.”
He said dairy has increased because of consumers looking after themselves more during lockdown and spending increasing time at home.
Rob Hutchinson, operations director for Muller, said they 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,” he said.
Optimism For UK Dairy Industry
The panellists, which also included journalist and commentator Chris Walkland and chair John Allen from Kite Consulting, said they were optimistic about the UK dairy industry.
Hutchinson said: “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 according to the reports published in agriland.co.uk.
Hutchinson added: “We hope to see the situation improve as there’s no doubt this is having an impact on the cream price.”
Walkland said the outlook was good to firm for most commodities:
“Cheddar is firm, mozzarella is firming, butter is good, and powders are okay, but cream is struggling.
“There are reasons to be optimistic on price, but sober on margins,” he concluded.
