France: The Southwest dairy industry “at a crossroads”

In New Aquitaine, the drop in collection was 25% between 2015 and 2021 (5% in France). “Maintaining production at a significant level is becoming difficult, warns Benoît Rouyer, director of the economy and territory division of the Cniel, during an update on the outlook for the dairy sector in 2030. Some regions could fall below the critical threshold of production". Thus, New Aquitaine now processes more milk than its territory produces. In addition, to maintain current production, subject to decline, a study by Idele showed that in France, each co-operator would have to take over 16 cows by 2030 to stabilize the dairy herd. The figure even rises to 22 in New Aquitaine. "We can see that we are getting to something that is impossible to achieve," says the national manager. An opinion shared by Christophe Limoges, the president of Criel. “In this case, we would have to move towards intensive farming rejected by consumers and achieve an unprecedented leap in productivity, not to ...