The Belgian dairy industry seems to be one of the few players in the EU that has sold more product to the United Kingdom after Brexit. The EU as a whole, on the contrary, sold less to the UK. For the rest, the turnover of Belgian dairy last year remained the same as in 2020.

This was reported by managing director Renaat Debergh on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Belgian dairy group BCZ/CBL.

On the one hand, he sees encouraging developments, because in a turbulent environment, the Belgian dairy industry as a whole managed to keep its turnover stable at €5.4 billion, managed to move well in a market in which all prices rose rapidly, but also saw room for additional investments. Last year, these investments increased by 23% to a total of €170 million, a record for Belgium.

On the other hand, there are concerns about the consequences of the Flemish nitrogen policy for dairy farming and the dairy industry in that part of the country, according to the director of the BCZ. If the plans of the Flemish government continue – which the dairy industry does not agree with – milk production in Flanders is expected to fall by 20%, the self-sufficiency rate will fall below 100% and a restructuring of the industry is necessary, Debergh fears.

It’s not that far yet. The dairy industry is in full swing, although a dairy company also went bankrupt (Hollebeekhoeve) in the previous year. The BCZ keeps a monthly record of the average rental price paid in Belgium. In the second half of last year, the average milk price paid out in Belgium increased by 29%. This increase in the price of milk continued in the first quarter of this year and thus amounted to 40%, DeBergh points out.

Although the dairy market has risen sharply in the past year, DeBergh said it was a shame that the domestic market, and especially the retail market, did not keep up with developments in dairy. Because the higher dairy prices have risen sharply, but also largely out of necessity, because the production costs have risen sharply. Availability on a global level is becoming increasingly tight and has been for longer than since the Ukraine war. As an example of the misunderstanding and perhaps the unwillingness in the retail for the situation in the dairy, DeBergh mentioned the Dutch retail chain Jumbo, which had to sell no to the customers, because it did not want to pay for the more expensive dairy.