Rabobank’s latest inventory of the world’s largest dairies confirms Lactalis as the world’s largest. Arla has been overtaken by Fonterra and now remains the world’s 7th largest dairy company.

Rabobank’s annual Global Dairy Top 20 report by RaboResearch shows that the world’s largest dairy companies saw a modest 0.3 percent increase in total revenue in US dollar terms in 2023. This follows a strong increase of 8.1 percent the previous year. The slower growth is primarily due to lower milk prices in 2023 compared to the high levels in 2022. This information is provided by Dairy News Today (media outlet for the dairy industry) as a comment on the report.

In euros, the total revenue of the 20 largest dairy companies even fell by 2.3 percent compared to the previous year, as the euro strengthened against the US dollar, and several large European cooperatives reported lower revenues. The report also underlines that fewer than half of the companies (eight) retained their rankings from the previous year, as exchange rate fluctuations and limited merger and acquisition activity continued to impact the ranking.