Germans continue to drive cheese boom

With red meat and sausage demand now back to almost pre-BSE days in Germany, dairy experts had expected to see the soaring cheese consumption curve flatten out. Instead, the market research organisation ZMP estimates last year’s domestic consumption of cheese to have been 1.8 million tonnes, up 3.4% on 2000.
This compares with a 2.4% increase in home consumption between 1999 and 2000, when the BSE scare really got underway.
ZMP did warn that much of last year’s rise was in the first half of the year and that home consumption of cheese was actually reducing month by month. Making up for this, however, are rapidly increasing sales of German cheeses abroad.
The country’s milk industry federation, MIV, reported that cheese exports for the first eight months of last year were up 10.5% compared with the same period last year. Exports at the end of August totalled 374,000 tonnes, with 83% of this going to EU countries. Italy, France and the Netherlands imported nearly half of this.
German cheese exports outside the EU grew by 9% in the first eight months of last year. MIV reported that Russia was once again becoming an important customer with just over 24,000 tonnes imported there.
One of the reasons for the rising consumption of dairy products in Germany are prices – they are still among the lowest in Europe, despite increases in retail prices of up to 20% in the first half of 2001. Officials at MIV said that the products at the bottom of the EU retail price league are pasteurised milk at E0.88 per litre, UHT milk at E0.61 per litre and butter at r1 for 250g.
In addition, while dairy prices have remained relatively stable for years in Germany, household incomes have soared. MIV reported that in 1960, when the average household income was just over E400 per month, 250g of butter sold for E0.85. Today, this price has increased by E0.16, or 18%, while average monthly income per household has increased tenfold.