Agribusiness Handbook: Milk / Dairy Products - FAO

Table 9: The world’s top dairy companies by turnover, 2007 (billion USD)
Ranking Company Country Dairy turnover
1 Nestle Switzerland 23.1
2 Danone France 14
3 Lactalis France 13.2
4 Friesland/Campina Netherlands 12.1
5 Dairy Farmers of America United States 11.1
6 Dean Foods United States 10.4
7 Fonterra New Zealand 10.4
8 Arla Foods Denmark/Sweden 8.8
9 Kraft Foods United States 6.4
10 Unilever Netherlands/United Kingdom 6.1
11 Saputo Canada 5
12 Parmalat Italy 4.9
13 Bongrain France 4.7
14 Land o'Lakes United States 4.2
15 Meiji Dairies Japan 4.1
Source: Rabobank International
2.3 Scale of production and size of plants
As companies have sought ever-greater processing efficiencies to compete
effectively in the global market, dairy processing plants have increased in size
and scale. Even so, there is significant variation in size among the major milk
producing areas of the world. In the EU, the largest manufacturing plants tend
to be in the Netherlands, where butter factories each produce about 22,000
tons/year, cheese factories about 25,000 tons/year and powdered milk plants
about 16,000 tons/year. This scale of plant production compares favourably
with the United States, but falls well below the scale of plant in New Zealand,
where butter factories each produce about 35,000 tons/year, cheese factories
about 31,000 tons/year and powdered milk plants a massive 70,000 tons/year.
The size of processing plant production is related to the size of the relevant
market. Thus, New Zealand, which serves the world market, has very large
processing plants. In the EU, the Netherlands is the major exporter, and plant
size reflects this. However, elsewhere in the EU, many plants are smaller,
multipurpose and able to switch from one product line to another as market
conditions demand.
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