04 May, 2012

The retail value of dairy products has risen for the seventh consecutive year, stdavids-farmvets.co.uk reports.

Addressing delegates at the AHDB Outlook Conference in London, Giles Quick from Kantar Worldpanel explained that annual spend on dairy products rose by more than 4 per cent over the past seven years. The industry is now thought to be worth around £10.12 billion, which equates to 12.4 per cent of all spending on food and drink.

The news is positive for dairy farmers, as this rise is well above the average grocery price inflation, which over the same period was around 5.5 per cent.

These rises are thought to be from consumers happily spending more on expensive, added value products, as opposed to simply buying core products such as milk, cheese and butter in greater volumes.

In fact, Quick explained, sales on core products may have declined through heavy discounting by supermarkets in order to remain competitive. "We've seen a big switch from branded to own label," he told fwi.co.uk, "with people buying the same sort of stuff but cheaper."

Research also showed that consumers buy dairy products around 110 times a year and consume dairy over 1,000 times. 36 per cent of all meals were thought to contain at least one dairy product.

Source: Vertical Leap