Changing the destiny of UK dairy

The UK dairy industry needs to take control of its own destiny in order to meet future domestic and international challenges successfully, explains Dr David Dobbin, chairman of Dairy UK. Speaking at the Semex conference in Glasgow, Dr Dobbin says the industry has to ensure extremely difficult conditions as a result of oversupply of milk globally, intense price competition in falling markets, lower returns and deflation.

He says, “We know what the problems are and there is no shortage of them. We understand that global milk supply is still growing too fast and is outstripping demand and we are not immune to significant factors such as the slowdown in the Chinese economy and the Russian ban on importing products.

“Our options are to wait it out, protest, face new legislation or we can up our game and take charge of our own destiny. Our industry’s problems are down to global oversupply we need to develop the demand for British dairy products and invest in promotion both at home and in target export markets.

“The British dairy industry needs to become more competitive right along the total dairy supply chain reducing cost and becoming more efficient.”

Dr Dobbin adds that the industry needs to get better, not just bigger and there is a need for a business model that is viable for both processors and farmers.“We need to pursue sustainable growth, be market led rather than production led and develop strategies to grow in value as well as volume. If we can make a bigger cake, then there will be more share for everyone,” he says.

Dairy UK will be submitting a new export strategy to the government, which will address key issues such as trade barriers, target markets, certification processes and compliance and audit standards. He says, “We have to take out cost, be more efficient and build our own USP – we have tremendous, nutritious products which we can promote as we hunt out opportunities in domestic and export markets.”