Consumption Summary
The major Australian consumer dairy products are drinking milk, cheese, butter and butter blends, and yogurt.
Per capita consumption of major dairy products (litres/kg)
| |
Milk (l) |
Cheese (kg) |
Butter/Blends (kg) |
Yogurt (kg) |
| 2004/05 |
100.2 |
11.3 |
4.1 |
6.6 |
| 2005/06 |
100.5 |
11.7 |
3.9 |
7.0 |
| 2006/07 |
103.0 |
12.0 |
3.8 |
7.1 |
| 2007/08 |
103.7 |
12.5 |
4.1 |
6.9 |
| 2008/09 (p) |
103.7 |
12.3 |
4.0 |
6.7 |
Source: Dairy manufactuers and Dairy Australia
Per capita consumption trends over the past two decades have varied quite significantly by individual product. These trends reflect changes in consumer tastes and preferences in response to a multitude of variables, such as multicultural influences on food trends, health perceptions about dairy products and manufacturers’ responses (such as low-fat variants), new product development, flavour and packaging innovations, competitive category offerings, and the distribution and availability of products.
Per capita consumption of drinking milk is estimated at 104 litres, unchanged from last year, after increasing steadily over the previous five years - thanks in no small part to the expansion of the 'coffee culture' in Australia.
Cheese consumption has stabilised at between 12kg and 12.5kg in recent years, with an on-going shift from cheddar to non-cheddar varieties as consumer tastes have developed and diversified.
Butter consumption slowed during the 1970s and 1980s, as people limited their intake of saturated fats. However, dairy blends with the perceived ‘naturalness’ of butter products, have experienced growing popularity in the past two decades with per capita consumption of dairyspreads now around 4kg per year.
Yogurt is the ultimate ‘healthy snack’ for time-pressed consumers, combining both convenience and health attributes, and has shown a slight decline in per capita consumption in the past couple of years to just below 7kg per year.