Peter Stahl looks back

“I do not want to speak of overheating of the European dairy market, but about the raw material availability being very tense”, said the chairman of the German dairy industry association (MIV) Peter Stahl during the annual general meeting, where he reported about a generally very stable market situation in Germany.

Around 55,000 milk producers in Germany plus supplies from neighbouring countries reliably provided the MIV associated dairies with 32.6 million tons of milk in 2020.

In the current year, however, the milk supplies are noticeably returned. More and more production conditions and high costs make life difficult for milk producers. Additional requirements for animal welfare are in particular reason for even more structural change, forecasting the association.

The per capita consumption 2020 varied differently depending on the product group. For consumption milk, the amount in recent years declined by 10%, while cheese consumption increased by 7% – this led to a record production last year of 2.6 million tons of cheese.

In particular, the ‘vegan wave’ is felt on the consumption milk market: oat drinks and co. achieve a share of 9% of the consumption volume of the original milk.

In case of butter, the sales – despite increased prices – could be slightly raised. The margarine can not benefit from the vegan wave.

The developments look similarly in 2021, but lack of milk quantities. The cheese production remains at a very high level and strengthens sales of the industry. This was in 2020 at €27.3 billion and in the trend 2021 the numbers look to be about 2% upwards. However, the costs of processing have risen significantly, in particular the high wage claims and rising prices in purchasing.

The German dairy industry has at least quantitatively survived the foreign trade in the Covid year 2020 and has also been able to keep the positive development in the first seven months of 2021.

The ‘exemplary student’ cheese continuously shows improved growth over the current year, but demand from third countries is still below the previous year. For skimmed milk powder, sales remain below the previous year.

China shows significantly more interest in German goods overall in the course of the year – from the drinking milk to milk powder. But the bureaucracy has risen.

The Brexit continues to ensure confusion, as measures are changed again and again. Difficulties are in the clearance of the goods. The sales volumes of German dairies remained under the level of the previous year in the first seven months of the current year at almost all products. Only the milk mixed drinks have been in demand with almost 8 % more.

Worldwide the product and customer alignment plays a big role. Customers like hotels and restaurants have not yet reached their original demand due to corona restrictions. This is not only due to a reduced tourism, but also many traditional major events do not take place.