Dairy Council for Northern Ireland (DCNI) chief executive, Ian Stevenson, is indicating that the longer term outlook for milk remains upbeat.
His comments came against the prospect of international dairy commodity markets coming under pressure over the coming months.
Stevenson explained: “I attended the recent World Dairy Summit, held in Chile. And there were two critically important messages coming from that event.
“The first relates to the fact that dairy has a critically important place when it comes to feeding world’s population on a sustainable basis.
“This messaging was emphasised by so many people attending the summit, including the assistant director general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Dr. Thanawat Tiensin.”
According to Stevenson, Dr. Tiensin talked “very positively” abut the role of dairy in delivering sustainable nutrition for world populations.
“But in terms of the actual growth envisaged for the milk sector, this was a message amplified by the president of the International Dairy Federation, Gilles Froment, when he spoke to the launch of the World Dairy Outlook report that was launched at the summit,” Stevenson added.
“This work is indicating that global demand for dairy will outpace production overt the next 10 years.”
According to the DCNI representative, the fact that future milk production levels will not be able to keep up with projected global consumption levels has to be the light at the end of the tunnel for the dairy farming sector.
Production cycles
He explained: “At the moment we are going through a short-term cycle where production has overtaken demand.
“And this simply reflects the fact that all the conditions to encourage large volumes of milk output were in place.
“And production is still powering on. I don’t think it has slowed that much up to this point.”
Stevenson noted that there will always be short- to medium-term impacts on global markets on a day-to-day basis.
“But the good news is that dairy can look forward to a future where it continues to play a central role in communities worldwide, generating livelihoods, fostering economic stability and delivering essential nutrients to billions,” he added.
“Dairy is now universally regarded as a uniquely powerful source of nutrition, meeting the needs of people at all stages in their lives.
“A combination of a continuing increase in the world’s population over the coming decades and a strengthening of dairy consumption rates on a per capita basis are driving this trend.”
