Some days after the event, I was taking a closer look at the Show Guide, in particular a piece written by RABDF chairman David Cotton.
It was entitled My vision for 2021. (Well, it is close to 2020.) Not unnaturally, a lot of his thoughts were focused on the dairy farm, but in his vision for 10 years’ time, there were some thoughts about other parts of the dairy supply chain …
The processing sector comprises one major co-op owned by UK farmers, one co-op owned by European farmers and another company owned by a multinational player looking for category management on a global scale. Think PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Kraft. One of them is on the cusp of joining the UK market, thereby bringing a new dimension to milk trading and dairy farmer relationships.
Well, the co-op owned by European dairy farmers would probably be Arla Foods, but who will be the one major co-op owned by UK farmers: First Milk or Milk Link? And where does this leave Dairy Crest and Robert Wiseman Dairies?
And PepsiCo or Coca-Cola on the cusp of joining the UK market? Will it take them 10 years? I suppose it will depend on how their current moves into dairy go. If PepsiCo’s move into Russia is a big hit, will they have an appetite for more and accelerate the process?
One of the processing companies is planning overseas expansion due to lower milk supplies and as an opportunity to increase turnover. We have plenty of exportable skills and the scenario is presenting an opportunity to move into a developing market with a joint partnership leading to a merger or a takeover.
There are some who would argue that UK dairy has had plenty of opportunity to move into developing markets, but has bottled out of the challenge. As Eastern Europe opened up and moved closer to Western Europe and the EU, many dairy companies took the opportunity to set up joint ventures and partnerships, or go for a straight merger or takeover.
Product innovation has been phenomenal on the back of increased profits leading to further R&D investment. We are exporting added-value, branded dairy products worldwide.
An interesting one. I’ll take a look at the state of R&D in dairy in a future issue of Dairy Innovation magazine. Perhaps that will give us a pointer to what may happen in 2021.
So, that’s Mr Cotton’s 2021 vision. Is he right? What do you think will be happening in your country in 10 years’ time? Let me know.
Geoff Platt is editor of Dairy Innovation magazine. He’s also active on LinkedIn.
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