Milk exporters
Positive trends in dairy exports
Compagnia Lattiero – Casearia of Roccafranca (BS) has been in the business of producing, trading and exporting whole and skimmed, fresh, frozen, pasteurized or condensed milk from the heart of Lombardy to the rest of the world for more than 15 years. After the long-awaited turnaround in the milk market, finally since 2016, and even more significantly since 2017, milk exporters have been able to count on a more buoyant international situation that year alone recorded a +10% increase in exports.
The news is particularly significant considering that the Italian dairy sector has always played a driving role on the entire agribusiness sector, holding the record for value of production in livestock farming and industrial turnover: 26 percent of the entire livestock industry and 12 percent of the total food industry are in fact attributable to the dairy sector alone, which in 2017 experienced record export figures.
Growth forecast for milk and dairy exports
After a decade that was not easy for milk exporters, today the outlook regarding production and exports of milk and milk products is finally positive. Having reached more satisfactory agreements on the price of milk, the sector has regained some stability at the Italian and European levels: in addition to the entry of plant-based alternatives to milk onto the market and the spread of misleading information (if not outright fake news) aimed at discrediting the nutritional value of an element that has always been as basic to the Mediterranean diet and European nutrition as milk, farmers, dairies and milk exporters have also had to deal with lower prices as a result of legislative changes.
The situation of the decade 2005-2015, which caused the closure of a great number of dairy farms and barns, has shown how the health of the dairy sector, as well as the territory itself, with special attention to the mountains and the risk of depopulation, depends on a fair milk price. Beginning in 2016, however, there has finally been a turnaround, effectively witnessed by CLAL’s cream, butter and milk bulletin: not only have sales begun to grow again, but also the baseline quotations have settled back to values satisfactory to producers and consumers. The data are particularly positive for milk exporters, who have seen their hard work to consistently provide quality products rewarded, confirming their appreciation for Made in Italy cheese, cream, butter and milk products.
Company producing and exporting milk and cream all over the world
Strategic for the Italian agri-food system, the dairy sector holds the record for value of on-farm production and industrial turnover and, despite the retreat in value upstream of the supply chain caused by the sharp decline in farmgate prices, it recorded record levels of exports in 2016-2017, with growth forecast for the decade to come as well. Recent estimates predict that within a decade, the European Union may become the world’s leading exporter of dairy products, rising to 26 percent of world exports of milk and dairy equivalents.
In fact, despite competition from tough competitors such as New Zealand and Australia, European milk production is estimated to grow by about 1.3 million tons per year to reach 177 million tons in 2026. Facilitating the positive trend for milk exporters are fairer farmgate quotations and new legislative provisions on supply chain safety and transparency. In this regard, CLC of Roccafranca (BS), a Lombardy-based producer and exporter of milk and dairy products, applies strict protocols for verification and management of production procedures and product quality: the goal is to always ensure product safety and legality, in accordance with national, EU and various importing countries’ legal requirements.
