Ornua sales of Pilgrims Choice and Kerrygold product in the UK are up significantly for the last two months.

Product sales are in some cases up 50% on the same time period last year. The supermarkets can’t keep product on the shelf. There is no eating out so now all is purchased in supermarkets. Purchased pack sizes are bigger and consumers have gone back to shopping as they did 15 years ago – one big weekly shop.

In exceptional times we often just hear the negative and often the positives can pale into insignificance. However, often without the small positives the negatives might be a lot worse.

The changes that are happening in the consumer market right now are astonishing and something we have not seen in the last 20 years

Ireland Inc exports a large chunk of product into the UK. It’s a large sophisticated market with diverse tastes, but also has a taste palate similar to our own. They like our butter and particularly our cheddar cheese.

Yes there are challenges with Brexit coming down the line and for years the Irish dairy industry has been talking about diversifying out of cheddar cheese into softer continental-type cheeses, but the high-returning cheddar cheese market has been hard to leave behind.

The Irish market is diversifying, with ongoing investments in the production of mozzarella and some Nordic cheeses that will help diversify the cheese product coming out of Ireland.

This week on Farm Tech Talk we talked to Bill Hunter, managing director of Ornua Foods UK. He said Kerrygold and Pilgrims choice (branded cheese in UK) are flying it. Sales are up significantly. Tonnages sold are into four figures up on what was sold this time last year. Will it continue? Bill says there is no doubt it will continue for as long as the lockdown continues. Long term? Depends – definitely more consumers have been exposed to the product and have now purchased the product.

Silver lining

Every cloud has a silver lining. The changes that are happening in the consumer market right now are astonishing and something we have not seen in the last 20 years. Dairy companies are scrambling to deliver. Bill explains product ranges have been cut in half – where once they were making 20 different pack sizes or products, now 10 are produced. It simplifies the system and allows them deliver.

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Watch: livestock show Farm Tech Talk