Nov. 26 - Tetra Pak released a preliminary estimate of the global liquid dairy products (LDP) market. The consumption is projected to hit an all time high of 242 billion liters in 2007 - up five billion liters from 2006.
Tetra Pak, a world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, projects continued growth of the dairy market. It is prompted by increasing demand in Asia, Latin America and Africa where governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been promoting milk consumption for its nutritional and health benefits, such as reducing the risk of osteoporosis.
Current LDP growth is driven primarily by India and China, according to Tetra Pak, which produces annual figures covering global dairy consumption patterns in 116 markets. LDP consumption from 2006 to 2007 is up an estimated 1.4 billion liters for India, projected to reach 50 billion liters, and up an estimated 1.7 billion liters in China, projected to reach 17.5 billion liters this year. In Western Europe and North America, milk consumption remains relatively high and stable. According to Tetra Pak estimate, global LDP market will grow by 9.5% by 2010.
Consumers’ interest to dairy products increases in Russia as well. “We expect further growth of the Russian dairy market. According to our estimate, in 2007 it will reach 10.5 billion liters, which is 120 million liters more than in 2006”, says Kestas Sliuzas, Tetra Pak Russia’s Vice President on Marketing.
According to Kestas Sliuzas, “recent jump in global prices for dairy products has been prompted by the fact that lately the consumption of dairy products has been increasing, with raw material supply dropping short.” According to Tetra Pak, this tendency will remain the same in the next two years; the supply will be less than demand by 4-5%.
Today more liters of LDPs are consumed from cartons than any other packaging type at 39% of the market. More than 50 billion liters of white milk and 15 billion liters of other LDPs will be packed in cartons in 2007. This number has grown by almost 2 billion liters since 2006.
Ambient white milk shows the biggest increase over the last year with a projected share of 20% in the 2007 market. This reflects the increasing consumers’ focus on healthy life, resulting in shifted preference to natural and nutritious food products in safe packaging. In Russia, ambient milk in aseptic carton packaging grows twice as fast as the whole market of packed milk.