Nestlé leads global dairy top 20

Swiss food giant Nestlé topped last year’s global dairy industry rankings with revenue of €20.6 billion, followed by Lactalis at €17.6 billion and Danone at €15.2 billion.

Next in the rankings, drawn up by Rabobank in its report Global Dairy Top 20-2019, were New Zealand-based company Fonterra (€12.1 bn) in fourth place and FrieslandCampina (€11.6 bn) in fifth.

Amongst other leading names in the industry, Chinese firm Yili ranked ninth at €9.5 billion, followed by Canadian company Saputo in ninth at €9.3 billion. Unilever was twelfth at €5.7 billion. Closing the rankings in twentieth position was German firm Müller with estimated revenues of €4.3 billion.

According to Rabobank, lower commodity prices, adverse weather conditions in key export regions, a strong US dollar and currency shifts were all factors that influenced the combined turnover of the world’s top 20 dairy companies in 2018.

There was a 2.5% increase on the year in US dollar terms (compared to +7.2% in 2017), but a 2% fall in terms of euros (+5.1% in 2017).