DAIRY REPORTS 12
Dairy development in Argentina
Table 14
Other dairy products, 2009
Production (‘000 litres)
Cream
Butter
Milk caramel
Yoghurt
Other
Total
39 154.000
50 779.684
124 980.263
519 111.000
114 479.000
848 503.947
Stock (2008 vs 2007) (‘000 litres)
-93.000
-149.000
-92.000
-534.000
5 664.000
4 796.000
Ex-factory price (million US$)
298.493
530.145
576.399
2 066.662
31.601
3 503.301
Sales (million U$S)
94.421
168.294
182.910
651.526
10.058
1 107.209
Exports (‘000 litres)
395.897
21 591.777
6 494.708
11 113.749
44 334.205
83 930.336
(million U$S)
646.963
80 236.251
10 349.105
9 976.960
168 713.840
269 923.119
Imports (‘000 litres)
0.029
0.782
7.561
1 657.314
8 874.438
10 540.124
(million U$S)
0.459
5.037
22.517
1 145.347
20 368.547
21 541.907
38 851.132
29 337.689
118 585.116
510 188.565
73 355.233
770 317.735
0.10
0.74
2.99
12.84
1.85
19.38
Distribution (tones) Consumption (litres/capita) Source: SAGPyA, 2009.
c) Retail: The final consumer market is the most important channel for all dairy categories, which are sold through a highly complex retail network.
Retail sector There are four basic retail store formats in Argentina: i) hypermarkets, of at least 5 000 m2 and with at least 25 checkouts; ii) supermarkets, of 400 to 5 000 m2 with four to 25 checkouts; iii) small supermarkets and discount stores, of about 250 m2 with two to three checkouts; and iv) traditional grocery stores, of less than 100 m2 with one checkout. Argentina has more than 315 000 food stores, including 93 300 kiosks, 118 000 traditional food retailers, 4 200 mini-markets, 17 000 self-service shops and supermarkets, and retail stores specializing in bakery, meat, pasta, fruits and vegetables, etc. Modern retail marketing (through hyper- and supermarkets) is still being developed; it currently accounts for approximately 40 to 50 percent of total sales of basic goods (Asaretail, 2009a). Sales through modern retail formats increased significantly during the 1990s, but at present there is a recovery or marginal increase in dairy sales through traditional stores and smaller supermarkets, suggesting that the traditional retailing channel can exist alongside larger stores. As shown in Table 15, supermarkets are of major importance to the dairy industry, with 40 percent of total retail dairy sales. Nonetheless, the smaller retail format is still the main channel for general foods, including dairy, especially dairy products with short shelf-life, such as pasteurized milk, cream and butter. Supermarkets have a larger share of longer-life dairy products, such as UHT milk, cheeses and milk powder.
Distribution of dairy products Table 16 shows the differences in distribution channels between dairy and other basic food products. Company distribution centres are a very important part of the dairy distribution chain, allowing major companies to supply their products directly – using their own fleets or independent marketing agents – to traditional and self-service shops and supermarkets. The rationale for the distribution shown in Table 16 depends mainly on the need for frequent deliveries of fresh dairy products and for a cool storage system, which most wholesalers lack. Most production from small cheese processing Table 15
Retail sale shares of different product groups Milk and dairy
General goods
Traditional stores
26%
36%
Self-service shops
35%
32%
Supermarkets
40%
32%
Source: Nielssen, 2008.