According to information from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), COVID-related disruptions continue to affect schools and workplaces. But with lessons learned, we are not seeing the full return to the massive economic and social dislocations of the past. That’s especially true in dairy, where despite all the marketplace challenges, demand has only kept growing.
The latest numbers show that per-capita dairy consumption in the U.S. has been growing and is at the highest levels since 1960. Exports for last year are on a record pace. Cheese and butter are up, yogurt and sour cream are up. But fluid milk has seen a decline as consumers shift toward dairy in other forms, but even that category had bright spots. Because grocery-store milk prices have increased, actual fluid-milk revenues rose nearly $900 million over the past two years. That’s a bigger gain than plant-based beverages, which saw sales of rise only $513 million.
And fluid’s decline wasn’t uniform across all categories: Whole milk consumption increased 0.5 percent over the past two years and is now well-established as the most popular variety of conventional milk, showing that fluid milk is more popular when it tastes more like milk.
NMPF notes the facts indicate dairy is doing well and growing. The products dairy farmers and cooperatives labor to create every day are only increasing in importance to U.S. consumers, and even more so worldwide.
Learn more at www.nmpf.org