Milk does it – growth worldwide

In 2005, global milk production is estimated to have grown to about 620 million tons, but nonetheless this increase of eight million tons is probably still lagging behind the growth in demand. Of the total milk quantity involved, 514 million tons came from milk cows.
143 million tons or 28 per cent of this milk were produced in the European Union. 95 million or 18 per cent came from North America, and 73 million tons or 14 per cent from some Asian countries. New Zealand and Australia together contribute almost 26 million tons to global cow milk production.
In the nations with a high consumption level, like in Europe, growth is now quite restricted, whereas the adoption of Western eating habits in many other nations of the world has triggered a continuous uptrend. Overall, market pundits are predicting consumption on the global dairy market to grow over the next few years up to 2010 by another 50 to 60 million tons, an increase of over two per cent a year.
The PET bottle is increasingly the first choice for packaging milk-based beverages. For the dissemination of PET, it is above all drinking yoghurt that is acting the front-runner role. Of the drinking yoghurts purchased at German retailers by private households, for example, more than 90 per cent are meanwhile being packaged in PET bottles. Dynamic growth has been driven by the continuous change-over to consumer-friendly containers, ones that can be reclosed, are easy to drink from, where the product is visible, and which are suitable for drink-on-the go purposes. PET (and HDPE) provide the range with persuasive advantages in terms of convenience.