Milk in Sweden

Swedish milk is a highly controlled food and quality control is well-developed. This guarantees consumers the best quality throughout the
In total, there are 15 dairy companies in Sweden. Seven
of them are members of the industry organisation the
Swedish Dairy Association and account for over 99 per
cent of the country’s milk production. The others are dairy
farms of varying size. The seven large companies are all
cooperatives. Competition between the dairy companies
has increased, locally and globally.
ARLA FOODS, BY FAR THE LARGEST, processes about
two-thirds of Swedish milk and is the only company that
can be considered a global player. The other large companies
are: Milko, Skånemejerier, Norrmejerier, Falköpings
meje ri, Gefl eortens mejeriförening and Gäsene mejeriförening.
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In the rest of Europe, further mergers and cooperation
between di� erent dairy players are expected. In particular,
the newest members of the eu tend to have many
small dairies that will probably soon form amalgamations,
even across national borders. Investing in new markets,
such as China and India, is capital-intensive and
consequently attractive only to extremely large, strong
players.
The industry devotes considerable e� ort to developing
its exports of bulk products to include more value-added
products. Swedish dairy companies export mainly valueadded
products in the form of cheese and milk powder,
while imports mainly consist of cheese and yoghurt.
Cheese imports are more than twice as high as exports.