Articles by Brian Berk

It has been an excellent past 12 months — and beyond — for Kansas City, Kan.-based Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a national farmer-owned cooperative with nearly 11,000 family-farm owners and about 19,000 employees.

In good and times and bad, it is difficult to match the excitement of sports. Going hand-in-hand are sports nutrition products which reached $3.5 billion in 2022, and are expected to skyrocket in the coming years.

More cheese, please… In several cases, consumers are buying more. Natural cheese sales total $17.5B, with natural cheese chunks and shredded dominating the market with dollar and unit sales gains. 

With some 2,500 employees and annual net sales of $1.8 billion, Sargento Foods has been a family-owned cheese processor for 70 years. 

As our State of the Industry report, appearing last issue proves, milk sales are mixed compared to prior years. Total dairy milk sales totaled nearly $15.6 billion for the year ending Aug. 13. 

An Ho, director of food science and product innovation, at International Food Products (IFPC) joins Dairy Foods for Episode 34 of the “Let’s Talk Dairy” podcast. 

When it comes to butter, sales are serving up plenty of aces, with very few faults. 

In terms of ice cream and frozen novelty sales, matching a “Super Bowl champion”-level performance like those of the Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2020 and 2023, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic for ice cream, when consumers sought a home indulgence, is difficult to replicate. 

IDFA cannot pinpoint the cause of the shortage, but stressed there is plenty of milk. Instead, there is a packaging problem that should be alleviated. 

It always happens so quickly. The end of another year is almost upon us.