Asian milk demand driving dairy interest in beverage tech: Drinktec

Drinktec organisers, Messe München, have pinpointed increasing demand for liquid milk in markets such as China as the driving force behind growing dairy sector interest in beverage processing, filling, and packaging technology.

“The world’s thirst for milk is growing in the true sense of the word: because in the growth markets milk is indeed mainly consumed as a drink,”​ said show organisers in a statement.

“Not surprisingly, therefore, the dairy industry is keenly interested in the processing, filling and packaging technology for beverages and liquid food on show at Drinktec,”​ it added.

Volume growth needs tech​

Citing Euromonitor data, the Drinktec organisers labelled Asia and the neighboring Pacific region as the “forerunners”​ of this increasing demand, which is expected to drive worldwide milk production to around 137bn liters in 2015.

“Here Euromonitor sees volumes growing from 31bn liters today to 37bn, while consumption in Europe and North America is set to stagnate at a high level. In many of these strong-growth countries milk is consumed mainly as a beverage,” ​it said.

“In China, for example, the drinking milk proportion of the overall volume of milk processed is over 90%. In Germany by comparison, it is at around 20%. That means that the majority of the volume growth needs processing, filling and packaging technology, such as is on show at Drinktec.”​

According to the organisors, this demand will be evident at Drinktec,  which is scheduled to begin next Monday (16 September 2013).

Around half of the 1,300 exhibitors at the show are presenting technological solutions for the dairy industry, they claimed.

Category convergence​

Category convergence has also been pinpointed as a reason for the growing dairy sector interest in Drinktec and the beverage technology on show.

According to Drinktec exhibition director, Petra Westphal, the "food and beverage segments are no longer as separate as they once were – increasingly the borders are blurring."​

"​As a consequence, the manufacturers of beverages and the producers in the dairy industry are now using many similar or even identical machines and systems," ​said Westphal. "Flexibility is what the machinery manufacturers need to provide."​

"And almost half of the exhibitors at Drinktec will be offering technology for milk processing. Milk-industry professionals are very much a core group of visitors at Drinktec, just as are their counterparts from the breweries and fruit juice manufacturers," ​she added.