Moo-ving with the times

Wednesday 27 May 2020

77% of households believe the dairy industry is "essential" to the island's traditional rural landscape, while 18% are "unhappy" about paying a premium for Guernsey milk, according to an island wide survey.

More than 1,600 local households took part in the study by Island Global Research, which asked about their consumption of milk and alternative products, as well as the importance of the dairy industry.

The new survey found that while households generally consume less milk than in the past, the proportion buying full cream or low fat varieties has remained fairly constant.

Fewer households are now consuming skimmed milk, which coincides with an increase in availability of plant-based drinks and other alternatives.

Pictured: Guernsey's skimmed milk is less popular than it has previously been according to a recent survey. 

Some of the key findings were:

• 89% of households regularly consume Guernsey Diary milk (down from 97% in 2015), and 85% rated the quality as ‘excellent’.
• Low-fat milk is the most popular product, regularly consumed by 73% of households.  26% consume skimmed milk, 16% full-cream and 3% organic. 
• 83% felt strongly that Guernsey milk should be produced on island.
• 18% of households were unhappy paying a premium to support the local dairy industry. 
• 77% agreed that the dairy industry is essential to the maintenance of the island’s traditional, and familiar, rural landscape. 
• 27% of households report drinking less Guernsey Dairy milk than five years ago, while 15% said they drink more.
• 90% of households who consume ‘block’ butter and 78% who buy cream choose 

Andrew Tabel, General Manager of Guernsey Dairy, said similar studies were carried out in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

“The data gives us a thorough insight into consumer trends, not only of the consumption of our dairy products and non-dairy alternatives but also general views of the industry. 

Pictured: Andrew Tabel.

“One particular area of interest was understanding the reasons for choosing milk alternatives and consumers attitudes towards dairy products. Over a four-year period, there has been a small reduction in the percentage of households who regularly consume Guernsey Dairy milk; however, encouragingly our market share remains extremely high, with nine out of 10 households regularly buying our milk.  

“The survey results also suggest sales of skimmed milk have been displaced by milk alternatives, which is in line with reported UK trends.”

A full copy of the IGR survey can be found HERE.