Herbal Myths Pt 1

From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. If you read the news a lot, you might think that dairy products are dying as consumers turn to plant-based beverages that call themselves “milk.”

The narrative for several years, according to Alan Bjerga (BEER-guh) Senior Vice President of National Milk

Federation of Producers, has been that plant-based beverage sales are up and milk consumption is down, but that is changing…

BJERGA… “Vegetable drinks are down, in terms of consumption. Their volumes are down from a year ago. This has been the case since at least February. It’s not a flash in the pan.

Which, according to Bjerga, had to happen…

BJERGA… “People don’t drink these drinks like they used to and when they drink more than one drink, say oats for example, it comes at the expense of another kind of herbal drink . They cannibalize their own audience now. These are all indications of a maturing market and that image of the rambling upstart simply does not hold anymore.

Like other new products, Bjerga says they grow until the novelty wears off…

BJERGA… “We are starting to see that in plants. This is to be expected. This should also have been expected from the start, but some people bought into the marketing hype. The cap on those drinks was never going to come close to real milk, you know, which is made from dairy.

Tune in tomorrow to learn more about the myths of plant-based drinks and why dairy milk isn’t going anywhere.