It is worthwhile to note that organic milk was hardly affected by the recent milk market crisis. Despite a radical decrease of global milk prices, the prices for organic milk did not really suffer, both on farm and retail level. Maybe the organic sector has its own rules and mechanisms. Maybe it was just a constantly rising demand for products that, in the eyes of consumers, are much healthier for themselves and the environment – although everybody in the dairy business should know that this needs not necessarily to be the case. Anyway, the US Dept of Agriculture has noted a significant growth in the organic sector in Europe even last year when there was an overall milk production decrease caused by rapidly falling milk prices.

The USDA even goes as far as to forecast a 30 percent growth in the organic milk pool in North-West Europe, until 2020. Then, based on 2016, a total of 4.4 million litres of organic milk will be available in Europe. But will this increase be in line with the development of consumption? Or is the only reason for that growth being a number of farmers who plan to switch to organic because it promises much better earnings? In that case, one may be sure that the next milk crisis will hit the organic milk market as well. There is no guarantee that this won’t happen once production has overtaken consumption of organic milk and dairy products.

Therefore, daily farmers and industry should be cautious not to spoil an interesting niche market just out of short-term expectations for profits.