TEHRAN, March 14 - With supply exceeding demand, large farms taking center stage and plant-based alternatives luring consumers away, times are hard for small organic milk producers in the United States.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "At the current prices, we are in the red," said Spencer Aitel, who keeps 55 milking cows on his Two Loons Farm in Maine.
At the request of his co-operative, he had to reduce the size of his herd by 20 percent.
But a little over 20 years after entering the organic business in 1996, Aitel has paid off most of his debts and is confident the crisis in the industry will pass.
"I don't think 2018 is going to work -- 2019 might," he predicts.
"Younger people that we work with are in panic because they are really not making enough money -- many are trying to find a way out."
US co-operatives enticed by consumers' enthusiasm for organic products encouraged farmers to expand or switch their traditional dairy operations over to organic production to meet the demand.
But after several years of double-digit growth, sales have ground to a halt -- stagnating at around 5.5 percent of the milk market share in 2017.
Broadly, Americans consume less milk than in the past.
Some now opt for soy or almond varieties, while others have balked at the price difference between standard and organic options -- in one New York supermarket on Tuesday, a half-gallon (1.9 liters) cost $2.79 and $5.29, respectively.
As a result, demand dried up just as a wave of new farmers flooded the market, and as production resumed on existing farms after a pause of a year or more.
Source: AFP
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