Dutch dairy giant FrieslandCampina has announced a jump in turnover and operating profit in its 2022 results.

The farmer owned co-op recorded a 22.4% increase in revenue to €14.1bn, which was primarily as a result of higher dairy commodity prices and wider inflationary pressures which were not possible to pass on to customers.

Despite this, operating profit returned a healthy increase of 32.7% to €471m and this has been reduced by the exceptional items which include a currency cost of €62m in Nigeria and product network restructuring and divestments, which cost €176m.

Farmers received €5.4bn for milk purchases or €58.69 per 100kg (56.7c/l).

Chief Executive Hein Schumacher described 2022 as an extraordinary year and that inflation in the food and beverage section of the business was put under pressure by higher costs which couldn’t fully be passed on to consumers.

However, this was offset by a strong performance in the specialised nutrition, ingredients and trading business groups, plus the professional food service business.

Outlook

The chief executive highlighted that dairy commodity prices had fallen sharply in the last quarter of 2022 and this is expected to continue into 2023, with a negative impact on results for the first half of the year.

He also cautioned that market conditions would become more difficult due to reduced consumer purchasing power, and this would put sales volumes under pressure.

FrieslandCampina is headquartered in the Netherlands and a co-op owned by over 15,000 farmers across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

In Ireland, Kerry Group has published its results for 2022, with the other large co-ops to follow in a few week’s time.