“I’ve experienced something in the past three weeks that I have never seen in the 15 years I’ve been in the dairy industry, very high discrepancies from one week to another. (…) We saw over 67% increase in deliveries in one week. More than 100% increase for UHT milk and butter, both products that can be stored; we operate on a fresh product market, we did not expect to have such a significant impact and consumers to store such foods,” said Irina Mandoiu, commercial manager of Lactalis Romania, the largest local dairy group, which comprises Albalact, Covalact, Dorna Lactate, Lactate Harghita and Raraul and posted more than RON1.2 billion revenue in 2018, according to ZF’s calculations based on the latest available data from the Finance Ministry.
Consumers are seeking more versatile products now, basic dairy that can be used in recipes and products with as long a shelf-life as possible, says Athanasios Giannousis, commercial manager of Olympus Romania, which has a plant in Brasov County.
“We’ve noticed a monthly rise in sales by 40% on average since first COVID-19 cases in Romania, because the spending behavior changed – people buy more products at one time, stocking up for one week.”
Looking at sales by week, the fluctuation of the growth is rather high, from 30% to 70% if analyzing shopping baskets, the Olympus executive said.
Erik Hageleit, CEO of Hochland Romania, one of the largest actors on the dairy products market says March was surprising for the entire fast-moving consumer goods industry and the sales of Hochland saw fast paced growth compared with last year.
“The impact was visible in our business, where sales rose by more than 50% compared with the same time last year,” Hageleit says.
Razvan Orbulescu, marketing director of FrieslandCampina Romania, the producer of the Romanian dairy brand Napolact, has recently said demand is rising amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to. Both FrieslandCampina Romania’s plants are working at capacity, he added.
Small dairy producers like Artesana and Laptaria cu Caimac saw growth, too.
Dairy producers say sales may stabilize soon and if the food shopping budget shrinks, consumers will rather look for cheaper and private label products.
However, dairy products are staple foods so they will continue to be purchased.
The revenue of the companies in the sector will therefore overshoot the RON5 billion (over EUR1 billion) mark this year, an increase of 5% on 2019, according to ZF estimates.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)