The COVID-19 pandemic caused several hiccups and setbacks for a lot of industries such as the dairy industry. Experts believe that the dairy industry will grow at a slow pace in the coming years. Because of shifting in consumer preferences, chances are that the dairy industry will grow in certain product sections such as plant-based milk, sugar-reduced dairy, etc. So, innovation is the only benefit that changing consumer preferences can have.
Which trends will be vital for the dairy industry? These trends are divided into three categories high impact, moderate impact, and low impact.
High Impact product segments
Trend 1: Plant-based Milk
The rising interest of consumers in replacing the traditional dairy with plant-based milk has been noted. In fact, the overall sale of plant-based milk rose by 5%, while the traditional dairy sale did not grow in the US in 2019
Trend 2: Dairy-Based Snacks
Healthy snacking is on the rise. In fact, it offers a golden opportunity for the dairy industry to innovate dairy-based snacks.
Trend 3: Low Sugar Dairy
The reduction in sugar consumption has always been a major challenge for food industries, especially the dairy industry. Given the customer preference shifting rapidly to low-sugar foods, observing and innovating in this section is worthwhile.
Trend 4: Functional Foods
Functional foods also mentioned as nutraceuticals, are highly nutritious and provide a range of health benefits. One of the functional foods that has a chance to grow fast in the offing, is fermented dairy products.
Medium Impact product segments
Trends that fall into this section have long-term ramifications in the dairy industry. But they experience less growth in the short term in comparison with the high-trend ones.
Trend 5: GHG Emissions
The dairy industry is one of the main culprits of the GHG emissions globally. Since consumer preference is changing towards fewer carbon footprints, the more dairy plants reduce GHG, the better they will be appreciated among customers.
Trend 6: Blockchain-based Dairy Supply Chain
Consumers opt for more transparency in the supply system. They want to know that their needs aren’t met unethically. Blockchain offers a satisfactory solution to this problem.
Trend 7: Lab-based dairy
People nowadays have growing concerns over animal cruelty, shifting to opt for animal-derived products. Perfect Day Inc., a California-based start-up, has recreated cow’s milk proteins without the use of animals. Another start-up, Turtle Tree Labs is producing milk by using stem cells.
Low Impact product segment
These trends might not bring about important changes in the dairy industry in the next 2-3 years. However, some of these trends will play a vital role for companies that are trying to solve some specific problems.
Trend 8: Innovation in Transporting Dairy across Long Distances
The original properties of the products would be destroyed in the frozen milk with added preservatives, leading to concerns among consumers. New technologies like super-cooling containers that require no preservatives are being tried to overcome this problem.
Trend 9: Improved Livestock Monitoring
Increased emphasis on the detection of livestock disease and significant cost-savings have become the driving force of this market.
Trend 10: Mastitis Detection
Considering the health-associated and financial burden that could be lessened with early detection of mastitis, it would be profitable to measure how the domain progresses.
Trend 11: Cheese Production
The global cheese market is expected to grow by 2.7% from 2017 to 2023. Moreover, consumer’s preference has changed towards low-fat and low-calorie alternatives. Hence, there is a need to move further in this section.
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