While lemonade and apple juice sales go sour, cranberry cocktail, vegetable juices and smoothies rise above the rest. Unit sales of that old standby, orange juice, are squeezed.
Retail prices of regular yogurt drop compared to a year ago; shredded cheese is up 13 cents.
May 17, 2013
The retail price for a pound of butter is $2.53, a drop of 51 cents from two weeks ago. Shredded cheese, ice cream, regular and Greek yogurt prices rise.
Though yogurt continues to dominate the news (and aisles) for cultured dairy products, cream cheese, specifically soft cream cheese, saw a jump in dollar and unit sales.
Natural cheese continues to dominate the cheese aisle as the popularity of healthier products remains high with consumers. Meanwhile, most processed cheese products continue to miss the mark as sales drop.
Yogurt is a bright star in the dairy firmament, and brands are seizing the opportunity. Chobani took to the air with television ads during the Oscar ceremonies. Muller Quaker Dairy expands distribution into the Midwest and Southeast.
April 15, 2013
Everybody loves yogurt: dairy farmers, dairy processors, industry vendors, retailers and consumers. Yogurt production in the United States rose 4.2% from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cheese prices continued to push higher at the CME Group exchange; Some dry dairy markets regained confidence as news of higher international prices caught the attention of buyers and sellers.
March 25, 2013
Nonfat dry milk production remains heavy with producers holding inventories more confidently, according to the latest Dairy Market News by the USDA. Higher than anticipated volumes of milk are being directed to cheese plants across the nation. Despite increased inventories of cheese, manufacturers are reporting good sales and are mostly comfortable with the added production.
More plants are producing less ice cream. The number of units sold barely increased.
March 11, 2013
By most measures, ice cream is not a growing market. Production is declining, sales are stalled and manufacturers aren’t increasing prices by much. Yet there are more plants making ice cream.
The USDA says U.S. cheese markets continue to look for a clear price direction.
March 4, 2013
Cheese markets across the U.S. continue to look for a clear price direction. Milk production in the East and Midwest is increasing, and Western milk supplies are building as Arizona and New Mexico near peak production.
There are few stars in the refrigerated milk category as numbers drop. Flavored milks are among the few that showed increases in dollar and unit sales.
Total fluid milk products, which includes organic and non-organic, were down 1.7%.
January 25, 2013
The USDA's AMS service reported this week that total organic milk products sales for November 2012 were 191 million pounds, an increase of 9% from November 2011.