GLOBAL DAIRY CONGRESS - PRIORITIES FOR FURTHER ACTION

I had the privilege of chairing the annual Global Dairy Congress in Athens last week. 191 delegates, 37 countries, 24 presentations - a 48 hour world industry community. What did we learn ? What did it achieve ? Lots, actually. Information, insights, contacts, deals of course. But also a focus on some unresolved priorities for further action. At least, this was my take on it:

1. Consumer education - Dairy has massive benefits to communicate, but needs to co-ordinate its resources and messages more effectively - a task that is beginning to be addressed by the Global Dairy Platform.
2. Nutrition labelling - There was no appetite for traffic lights and no enthusiasm for guideline daily amounts, but nor has a viable alternative been found.
3. Added value - There was a spring in the industry's step as a result of improved sales, and greater confidence as a result of innovation success, but also an awareness that many traditions remain to be updated.
4. Natural vs functional - This is a real dilemma for product developers, with so many natural attributes in the market mainstream and yet an expectation of gradual moves towards more sophistication and extra functionality on the fringes.
5. Face the fats - 0% fat was seen by some as the middle way to achieve all of the taste with none of the drawbacks.
6. Environment imperative - Numerous initiatives were in evidence from pack lightweighting to renewable energy, but dairy has a big footprint and will need support to improve recycling.
7. School milk - The chance of a UN School Milk Centre was raised and greeted. This merits confirmation with alacrity. To have a UN backed World School Milk Day is a material asset and a dedicated UN unit would be a genuine investment.

UK TOP 100 GROCERY BRANDS - LOTS TO DIGEST

Nielsen's ranking of 2007 winners and losers offers many insights.

• Soft drinks is the largest category in UK grocery.
• Cold drinks account for 17 of the top 100 brands and 5 of the top 15, led as ever by Coke.
• 7 are carbonates including 2 energy drinks; 6 are fruit juices and drinks; 2 are waters; and 2 are dairy based.
• Red Bull, Cravendale milk, Oasis and Capri-Sun sales all advanced by over 20% last year.
• Innocent was the fastest growing, up 46% to £141 million, rising to no 33. It credits success to four key macro trends, well worth noting - health/wellbeing, indulgent/premium, convenience and ethical.

UK BOTTLED WATER - SILLY SEASON STARTS EARLY

Seasonality affects the sales of most beverages, but my latest concern over climate change has been an exceptionally early start to the silly season. This normally comes in the late summer, when so many people are away that journalists make news out of almost anything. Silly Last week, no less than the Cabinet Secretary wrote to all UK government departments asking them to adopt tap water only policies, explaining "I have made this issue one of my key priorities." This was front page news for the Evening Standard, leaving no room for health or education, defence or crime, not even football. This is because Whitehall reportedly uses 250,000 bottles of water a year. Which amounts to 0.02% of a market that is responsible for at most 0.1% of UK carbon emissions. Hardly a drop in the ocean. Sillier In mid February, the Environment Minister described bottled water as daft because tap water is so good. Yet Private Eye magazine found that his own department has installed special water filters at a cost of over £2,000 a tap. I'm surprised the Minister didn't add "let them eat cake". Silliest ? This week beverages will have been higher than usual on the Chancellor's agenda, when considering his first Budget statement. He has been urged to raise taxes on alcopops and lower taxes on fruit juice. These are not silly ideas, because the government can easily do more to encourage better social behaviour and better health. Important elements of public health policy are for us to eat 5 a day of fruit or vegetables and to drink 8 glasses a day of water. There is no VAT on fruit or vegetables or tap water. But we have to pay 17.5% tax for fruit juice and bottled water. The silliest thing would be not to promote better hydration and health by ending these anomalies, because the change would cost so little and save so much.