Structural changes in the French dairy processing industry during the last two decades

摘要

The dairy processing industry was the most important sub-sector of the French food processing industry before the 1990s as it counted for a quarter of the total sales and nearly one fifth of the gross value added of the total food processing industry. During the last two decades, it has undergone a major restructuring process which has led to a reduction in its overall contribution to the total. The dairy processing industry seems to be negatively affected by the global structural changes that influenced the European economies in general. The total number of dairy enterprises decreased by an annual average rate of 1.4 percent while the food industry as a whole showed a small growth rate of 0.6 percent per year from 1983 to 1997. Overall sales of the dairy industry grew by an average rate of 1.7 percent per year while the average growth rate for food processing was around 3.6 percent per year. Dairy processing seems to have lost also its profitability as we observe that the gross value added increased by only 1.5 percent per year and the net income decreased by 0.2 percent per year. On the contrary, the average increases for the food processing industry as a whole were greater: gross value added increased by an average annual rate of 3.4 percentand net income by 2.6 percent. These figures are explained somewhat by the hard conditions endured by the French dairy industry since the beginning of the 1980s. However, the responses of firms are not homogeneous and some seem to gain and take advantageof these changes while others are submerged because of the lack of economic efficiency and innovativeness.