Years after the milk mustache, fluid milk sales can now wear a smile. May 2016 packaged fluid milk sales totaled 4.05 billion pounds, up 0.2 percent from May 2015. Tom Gallagher, chief executive officer of Dairy Management Inc., said the numbers reflect innovation and promotion efforts to revitalize the fluid milk category.
“The sales data is encouraging and reinforces the value of investing in fluid milk,” Gallagher said. “The work that dairy farmers started a few years ago with the checkoff’s fluid milk revitalization plan is making an impact. We've seen unprecedented investment in new plant infrastructure and equipment, new product development and marketing. Value-added segments like lactose-free and flavored milk are continuing to grow, and at-home milk products such as fairlife have brought new resources into the category that lead people to take a second look at fluid milk. This, along with the re-emergence of whole milk, which accounts for one-third of the category, is encouraging.”
May sales of conventional products totaled 3.83 billion pounds, down 0.4 percent, while sales of organic products, at 217 million pounds, were up 11.3 percent. Organic represented nearly 5.4 percent of total sales for the month.
On the conventional side, whole and flavored whole milk sales continued to outpace last year’s sales. May sales of conventional whole milk were up 5.9 percent compared to the previous year, with flavored whole milk sales up 8.5 percent. Sales of organic whole milk were up 25.5 percent compared to a year earlier, with reduced-fat milk (2 percent fat) up 13.7 percent.
Conventional and organic fat-free milk varieties had the largest sales declines compared to a year earlier.
Year-to-date, total packaged fluid sales totaled 20.68 billion pounds, down just 0.3 percent from a year earlier. Conventional fluid milk sales totaled 19.61 billion pounds, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier. January-May organic milk sales total 1.08 billion pounds, up 5.4 percent. Organic sales represented about 5.2 percent of total fluid sales for the period.
May marked the fourth consecutive month year-over-year U.S. fluid milk sales have been near or above the year before. February 2016, up 2.2 percent from February 2015, was aided by leap day. March fluid sales were down just 0.5 percent, and April fluid sales were unchanged from a year earlier.
The trend provides optimism for things to come.
“Through the checkoff, dairy farmers continue to work with seven fluid milk companies and cooperatives to drive sustained, long-term growth,” Gallagher said. “The partners have a pipeline of new products planned for introduction over the next 18 to 24 months which will keep the category fresh and exciting.”
USDA’s figures represent consumption of fluid milk products in federal milk order marketing areas and California, which account for approximately 92 percent of total fluid milk sales in the U.S. PD
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Dave Natzke
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