Rabobank: Mergers and acquisitions shake things up among dairy’s global top 20
Nestlé, aided by a relatively stable Swiss franc vs. the U.S. dollar, still tops this year’s list.
In 2018, lower commodity prices, adverse weather conditions in key export regions, a strong U.S. dollar and currency shifts affected the combined turnover of dairy’s top 20 companies globally, said Rabobank, a cooperative bank based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In U.S. dollar terms, Rabobank still saw an increase of 2.5% for the year, compared to 7.2% in the previous year. However, combined 2018 turnover in euro terms dropped by 2.0% vs. an upward trend of 5.1% in 2017.
“The top three remained the same, although the gap between numbers one and two continues to narrow,” said Saskia van Battum, dairy analyst. “For the third year in a row, there are no new entrants in the list, due to a lack of elephant deals over the past 18 months, but some reshuffling took place.”