Emerging markets forecast to drive dairy industry boom
Friday, May 11, 2012
AT A time when SA’s dairy industry is losing milk producers because of the sector’s limited viability, an international index has forecast growth for the industry from an expected rise in prosperity and buying power among consumers in emerging markets including Africa.
The index, conducted by global food processing and packaging company Tetra Pak, claimed that more people would increasingly consume packaged liquid dairy products, opening new business and job opportunities o n the continent.
However, according to the Milk Producers Organisation there were 30000 dairy farmers in SA in the late 1980s, and only 2600 today. Its chairman, Dean Kleynhans, blamed big milk buyers in SA for holding farmers to ransom by paying less than R3/l for milk while the retail price was well above R10/l.
