State of the Industry 2013
Welcome to our 2013 State of the Industry report
The state of the dairy industry is good. Sales are up in many categories, exports of dairy ingredients are booming, processors are developing new products, the industry is touting the inherent nutrition in milk and suppliers are addressing flavor, sweetening, color and sustainability issues.
That’s not to say the industry is without problems. Sales of fluid milk continue to decline. Government regulations of milk prices and standards of identity stifle innovation and add costs. Animal-welfare activists, if they can’t get dairy farmers to stop de-horning or tail docking, are turning their sights on processors to pressure them not to buy milk from those producers. The dairy processing establishment is gearing up to re-fight GMO labeling again. California residents defeated a referendum once already but the issue of mandatory labeling of the use of genetically modified organisms is returning and spreading to other states.
That is a summary of our annual State of the Industry report. To prepare this series of eight articles, Dairy Foods editors and contributors talked with more than 100 dairy processors, association executives, research analysts and ingredient suppliers to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to dairy foods and beverages and the companies that manufacture them.
Click on a category below to view our report for that industry topic. Also take a look at our dairy vesions of famous movies below, and don't forget to vote for your favorite!
