In Belgium, households spent €3.13bn on dairy products between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. This represents an increase of 5 % compared to the previous year, according to the Flemish Centre for Agricultural and Fisheries Marketing (VLAM).
In terms of volume, liquid milk is the most important product category with a share of 53.5 %. In terms of expenditure, cheese is the most important product with a market share of 46.3%. This is where the increase in expenditure was greatest. There was also an increase in home consumption of other dairy products such as yoghurt, cream and fresh desserts. For butter and ice cream, there was a stabilisation after the sharp increase in expenditure in the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.
Home consumption of cheese increased by 4.9%, following growth of 8% in the previous period. Soft cheese in particular is performing well in Belgium, with an increase in volume share from 19.8% to 21.1%.
Following the 5% increase in domestic consumption of drinking milk in the period July 2019 to June 2020, there was a further 1.6% increase to 45.4 litres per capita in the same period a year later. In the liquid milk market, Belgian brands have been doing comparatively well since the Corona crisis. The volume share of organic milk rose to 3.2 % within 2 years. The share of liquid milk in relation to milk substitutes is decreasing slightly every year and now stands at 90.3 %.
