The milk category continues to have obstacles to overcome. As recent sales show, the skim/low-fat milk segment is still declining. But there is hope. The flavored milk segment showed both unit and dollar sales up. And trends are showing renewed interest in whole-milk products, which may be contributing to the success of whole milk, which also saw unit sales increase. (See Dairy Facts & Stats, page 78, for more about milk.)
Overall, the milk category sales were down, though not as severely as we’ve seen in past reports. Dollar sales fell 5.2% to $17.1 billion, and unit sales dropped 0.7% to 5.8 billion, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago, for the 52 weeks ended Nov. 1, 2015.