German dairy profit squeeze summed up

The steady squeeze on profit margins throughout the German dairy sector is reflected in Bernhard Pointner’s summing-up of the current market situation. Pointner is managing director of Berchtesgadener Land, one of the country’s smaller dairies, but still one of the most successful. Based in Piding, southern Bavaria the dairy processes 200 million kg milk annually. It’s director points out that dairies everywhere over the past two years had faced cost rises in packaging materials, energy and logistics “going well into double percentage figures”. Similar increases, he adds, are also being experienced in the cost of fruit bought in for the dairy products.

Pointner recalls that back in the 1960s there were around 3,000 German dairies. Now, he points out, only 90 remain in business. “And from those, 40 failed to achieve a positive financial result in 2012.”