Dairy products industry comprises companies that operate by selling primarily milk, cheese and butter products. Operators in the dairy product industry mainly manufacture dairy products such as pasteurized milk, cream, yogurt, and dry, condensed and evaporated milk. The dairy products industry also manufactures substitute dairy products made from soybeans and other nondairy ingredients. Dairy products industry has been volatile, particularly due to the fluctuations in raw milk prices and economic recession. But dairy products industry is one of the most dynamic markets worldwide and it is growing rapidly in almost all demographics with thriving success.

As the global population is divided between two major types of food consumers, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, the recent and latest health concerns over non-vegetarian foods consumption has slightly prompted consumers to switch to vegetarian and dairy food products. Dairy products include a very broad range of products such as lactose free milk, cheese, ice cream, butter, buttermilk, yoghurt, cream and frozen desserts among others. Today, there are newer and inventive products introductions in the ice cream, frozen dessert, cheese and yogurt sectors and they have attracted a large group of consumers to boost the dairy products market. Higher demand from emerging economies across the globe and higher feed prices at dairy farms have driven milk prices to shoot up and at the same time, the economic downturn has soured demand for higher margin dairy products. But in the last few years, economic recovery has once again strengthened global demand. 

2 . Current Market Trends in Dairy Products

The global dairy products industry is beginning to gain more strength as the innovations in technology for providing better quality products, service, measurement and reach of the dairy products and statistically improvised results have made dairy products industry to be one of the biggest contributor to the global economy. Of all the products, milk represents more than 35% of overall dairy products consumption in the market. Milk is used by almost all the global population, and used for several purposes, so the milk leads the dairy products market. Milk is the central component of the average diet of majority of the global population as it supplies nearly 20% of whey protein content.

The global dairy market is expected to exceed $371 billion by the end of 2014, in which the growth is due to the expansion of more than 24% in the last five years, according to MarketLine. The dairy products industry market is highly fragmented with the three leading companies that represent over 11% of the market. In the milk segment, according to MarketLine, the global milk market is expected to exceed over $146 billion by the end of 2015 with over 21% increase in the last five years. It is estimated that the market volume is expected to exceed over 110,000 million liters, which represents approximately 13% growth in the last five years. The US ice cream industry generates over $20 billion worth of sales and approximately 10% of US milk goes into making of different varieties of ice cream.

3 . Major Players In Dairy Products

Major players on the global dairy market include Danone, Amul, Nandini, Nestle, Dean Foods, Fonterra and Unilever.