PARIS: As the French organic market continues to thrive, organic dairy product supplies are becoming scarce on the French market, according to Stéphanie Lahad in Bord Bia’s Paris Office. Organic dairy is increasingly popular in France where 71% of the population are reported to have consumed organic dairy products in 2016, according to Agence Bio. This segment should continue to grow over the coming years as French consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality of their food, Lahand says. “Organic dairy products represented 18% of the organic food category in 2015, with 44.6% sold through multiple retailers while 29.3% was sold through organic chains such as Biocoop.
“In multiple retail, 9.3% of packaged UHT milk sold in 2016 was organic (+5.3% Vs 2015) and 99% of the volumes sold were sourced in France. “However, with an increase of 1% in the milk collection in 2016, due to bad weather conditions, it is not uncommon to notice shortages in stores on organic milk listings.” To address this issue, Lehand explained that 145 dairy farmers were in the process of converting to organic milk production in France in 2015. This should lead to the availability of an additional 56 million litres on the market (+10.6%) at the end of this year, according to the CNIEL.
In 2016, 45.7% of total organic milk production was packed while 9.6% was processed into yogurts and 3.4% into cheese according to France Agrimer. Those are the three most popular items in organic dairy consumption in the French market, according to Lehand. “French retail buyers are increasingly concerned by the shortage of supply of organic dairy products, especially for their private label organic brands (which represent 25% of the retail value share across all categories according to Euromonitor) and are actively seeking international suppliers with sufficient production capacity to address this issue.”
