Growth among the world’s largest dairy companies is increasingly coming from nutrition, protein and speciality cheese rather than higher milk volumes, according to Rabobank’s latest analysis of the industry’s Top 20 – a trend visible at Fonterra, Froneri and Magnum, among others.

The world’s largest dairy companies are moving away from pure volume growth and instead focusing on specialisation and higher value per litre of milk. That is a central conclusion of Rabobank’s annual Global Dairy Top 20 report, published by RaboResearch on 25 August 2026.

According to the report, growth across the industry is increasingly being driven by segments such as nutrition, protein ingredients, speciality cheese and functional dairy products, rather than simply larger milk volumes. Consolidation continues at the same time, but companies are also moving towards the areas where they can build a strong market position.

Fonterra drops broad consumer business
One of the clearest examples is New Zealand’s Fonterra, which has sold its consumer business in Australia and Asia, Mainland Group, to France’s Lactalis. The sale allows the cooperative to concentrate on its ingredients and foodservice business, where returns are higher, according to Rabobank, and supports a strategy in which returns to farmer-owners are prioritised above the overall size of the business. Fonterra’s farmgate milk price is closely linked to prices on the Global Dairy Trade auctions, which now account for a larger share of turnover.

Ice cream becomes a standalone business
The same trend towards specialisation is evident at Unilever, which has spun off its ice cream business as a standalone company, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, with brands including Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s and Cornetto. The company listed on stock exchanges in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States in December 2025, valued at 9.1 billion US dollars, and Unilever plans to divest its remaining 19.9 per cent shareholding over the coming five years. According to Rabobank, the separation gives management the freedom to invest and pursue acquisitions solely within the ice cream category.

Froneri, the joint venture between Nestlé and private equity firm PAI Partners, has likewise climbed steadily up the Top 20 list in recent years and has agreed to take over Nestlé’s remaining ice cream business for 1.1 billion US dollars.

Nestlé is moving in the opposite direction: its dairy and ice cream business fell from 10.4 billion to 9.7 billion Swiss francs in 2025, and the company made no significant dairy acquisitions, according to the report. Instead, Nestlé has restructured its business around four core areas – coffee, pet care, nutrition and health, and snacking – within which dairy plays a proportionally smaller role.

Scale alone is not enough
Rabobank concludes that the dairy industry is moving towards fewer, larger companies, with the winners of the future being those that combine scale with differentiation through brands, ingredients, nutrition and innovation – and that succeed in creating value beyond traditional commodity markets.

By Maja Løvstrup
Photo: Rabobank