Contrary to what happens in the world, In Argentina the dairy business is not so concentrated And while multinationals continue to gain ground, Large corporations adjusted their expansion plans and even withdrew from the country following the economic crisis.
The data is eloquent, According to the ranking prepared by Rabonbank in which it positions the 20 largest dairy companies in the world According to its turnover, the top It was for Lactalis with US$30.2 billionThe peculiarity is that this giant of the industry was just in March of last year It abandoned its operations in Argentina after closing its cheese production plant located in Santa Fe and its offices in the City of Buenos Aires, and it did not even leave representatives in these latitudes.
Lactalis is a French-owned giant that landed in Argentina in 2015, but soon began to feel the vicissitudes of the local economy firsthand.. Initially, its objective was produce cheeses in its Santa Fe plant and at the same time import other already processed dairy products to sell under their brands on local shelvesthe truth is that the restrictions on Imports in recent years ended up ruining their plans.
Continuing with the Rabobank ranking, In 2023, second place went to the also giant Nestlé with a turnover of US$24.1 billion. This company remains strong in Argentina, but it is true that at the end of last year it discontinued the production of A2 milk, which is easy to digest, due to low demand for the product.
With an investment of US$16.5 million, Nestlé’s A2 milk reached the local market in 2020 along with another innovative product of the firm, organic milk powder. To carry out this initiative, the company worked for two years with a group of dairy farmers who had to certify their facilities under strict standards.
Meanwhile, third place in the ranking went to the North American Dairy Farmers of America, which has no presence in the country, with US$21.7 billion, followed in fourth place by DAnone, with US$19.7 billion, in the particular case of this last company, is the leader in Argentina in the desserts and yogurt segment, but the truth is that this sector is precisely showing a decline in consumption of around 40% so far this year.
Fifth place went to China’s Yili, with a turnover of US$17.5 billion, and sixth place to Fonterra, from New Zealand, with US$15.1 billion, neither of these two firms has a presence in the country.In the case of Fonterra, it worked locally until 2014 in association with Nestlé and in 2017 it bid to take over the SanCor dairy cooperative, something that ultimately did not come to fruition.
The list of companies continues with others that also do not have a presence in Argentina, in seventh place Arla Foods (Swedish-Danish), in eighth FrieslandCampina (Netherlands), in ninth Mengniu (China) and Only in tenth place is Saputo from Canada with a turnover of US$12.8 billion and in Argentina it is positioned as the national leader in milk processing with 3.6 million liters per day and is recognized for its La Paulina brand.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
