There’s a sense that the use of alternatives to dairy has “peaked and weaned slightly”, certainly in terms of the consumption side, the CEO of the National Dairy Council (NDC) has said.

Emma Walls told the Irish Farmers Journal's breakfast briefing at Dairy Day in the UL Sports Arena that “alternatives have peaked and fallen back a bit but they still occupy a lot of space on the shelves, too much in my opinion”.

“So I wouldn’t be complacent about the danger there, particularly with the younger cohort,” she said.

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She said that NDC’s research is laser focused and that it worries about dairy consumption among the 18 to 24 age group. She also said that the food service sector is where the greatest threat is.

“The fundamentals don’t change – we’re still talking about wet oats, wet nuts, we’re talking about a product that’s twice as expensive with half the nutrition. I think the fundamental nutritional value of dairy is still very relevant.

“I’m clearly biased, but I think if you have to take a product like that and disguise it with one of the strongest ingredients in the world, ie espresso, to take away the taste of it, it’s not a great product fundamentally,” she said.

Role of currency

Head of dairy at Bord Bia David Kennedy told the briefing that the role of currency when it comes to Irish dairy exports is massive.

“A lot of our third country business is done on the US dollar. The policy of the US administration at the moment is to devalue the dollar to stimulate US exports.

“That is a challenge,” he said. “If you look at our exposure to commodity markets, it’s not even for our branded business - Kerrygold, Cheesestrings, Avonmore – the balance of our business is commodity and we’ll always ride the rollercoaster of commodity dairy markets globally, until we put more of that business into solid branding, value add business,” he said.

Stay tuned to the Irish Farmers Journal for more from Dairy Day.