Dairy Connect

Where the dairy industry connects.

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Understand what is changing, find the expertise to act on it, and meet the people who matter — across global dairy.

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Dairy Forum Ireland, April 2026

Senior attendees: 75
Organisations: 23

No stands, no pitches. It is the model the whole platform is built on.

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For you

What brings you here?

Eight reasons people come to Dairy Connect. Pick yours and go straight to what is useful.

Meet the industryTwo curated forums a year, built around who should meet whom.The forums Reach dairy decision-makersPartnership built around your commercial objective.Partner with us Grow my businessGrowth in dairy is rarely just a marketing problem.GROW by Dairy Connect Solve a technical challengeProcessing, yield, water, whey, energy and food safety.Sustainability & Technical Enter a new marketExport readiness, and the forums where the world meets UK and Irish dairy.GROW: export readiness Build my brandProvenance, premiumisation and what buyers and shoppers will pay for.Provenance & Premium Find suppliers & expertiseSearch partners by the problem you need to solve, not by category.Partner Directory Understand what's changingIndependent analysis, with the bottom line on every piece.The Dairy Mail

Explore by role

Built for the job you do, not the size of your company.

A technical director at a PLC has more in common with a technical manager at an SME than with the PLC's marketing team. Start from the role.

Technical & ProcessingTechnical, operations, plant, process, QA, engineering, NPDAnalysis, partners, events and GROW for the plant Leadership & StrategyCEOs, MDs, owners, boards, strategyWhat matters this week, who to know, where the room is Commercial & SalesCommercial, sales, business development, export, categoryCategory, channel and export intelligence Marketing & BrandMarketing, brand, insight, innovation, communicationsConsumers, brands and retail, taken as seriously as production Artisan & SMEFarm-based, artisan, family and scaling producersWhat to do next, from selling locally to winning retail Suppliers & TechnologyEquipment, packaging, ingredients, hygiene, digital, servicesReach decision-makers, get listed, understand the buyer Retail & FoodserviceBuyers, category, sourcing, chefs, distributorsCategory signals, the suppliers and producers to meet Research & PolicyUniversities, institutes, government, industry bodiesMarkets, policy and the evidence behind the analysis InternationalOverseas businesses and investors looking at UK and IrelandUK and Irish dairy in its international context

What's happening in dairy

Signal, not a news feed.

A small number of things that matter right now, each with what changed and why it matters. Independent analysis from The Dairy Mail.

Market

Cheddar rises 9% in a month and still trails the milk price

What changed: Mild Cheddar gained £270 a tonne in September, more than any other product AHDB tracks, and cheese is back above butter and powder at the factory gate.
Why it matters: The October milk price rises were announced weeks before that figure was published, and AHDB says Cheddar prices remain too low to cover them.
What to watch: Whether November milk price announcements move again before the next AHDB wholesale assessment, and whether contract cheese prices follow the spot trades.

Members · Analysis · 29 September 2026

Regulation

The invoice arrives this autumn. Nobody can tell you what it says.

What changed: Year-two extended producer responsibility is priced on recyclability, and the confirmed fees are not published until November.
Why it matters: Packaging with missing recyclability data is rated red by default, so 100 tonnes rated red for want of an assessment costs £13,000 more than the same tonnage rated green.
What to watch: PackUK's confirmed year-two fees and the first Notice of Liability, both due by the end of November.

Members · Analysis · 22 September 2026

Technical

The Invisible Factory: the value leaving dairy through its drains

What changed: Every dairy measures the milk that arrives and the product that ships. Far fewer measure what leaves through the drains, the flue and the failures in between
Why it matters: The largest untapped margin on most dairy sites is not a new product but the value already leaving as effluent, heat and yield loss; the first commercial act is to measure it.

Members · Analysis · 20 August 2026

Retail

The value test at both ends of the chain

What changed: Value growth on protein-claim products has more than halved since January, while wholesale Cheddar barely moved as milk got dearer.
Why it matters: The processor is squeezed from the shelf and the wholesale market at once, and cheese makers meet the margin test first.
What to watch: NIQ's next Total Till read on protein claims, and whether September's Cheddar rise holds through the October wholesale figures.

Brief · 15 September 2026

The Dairy Mail

Latest analysis and current opportunities

All of The Dairy Mail

A small serving of natural yoghurt with granola and berries on a wide white plate

Members · Analysis · 6 min read

After protein: the smaller plate and dairy's fibre gap

Fibre is the first claim in this cycle that dairy cannot make from milk alone: only 4% of UK adults eat the recommended 30g a day, plain dairy carries no meaningful fibre, and dairy's own candidate, GOS, is neither a settled fibre claim in GB nor still made in Britain at scale, so a business that wants the claim in 2027 has to start the recipe and evidence work now.

13 October 2026

Members · Analysis · 10 min read

Cheddar rises 9% in a month and still trails the milk price

Mild Cheddar rose 9% in September, taking a litre made into Cheddar and whey to 39.08 pence and putting cheese back above butter and powder at the factory gate, but the October milk price rises were announced weeks before that figure was published, and AHDB says Cheddar prices remain too low to cover them.

29 September 2026

Members · Analysis · 7 min read

The invoice arrives this autumn. Nobody can tell you what it says.

The most expensive packaging decision available to a mid-sized processor this year is not a material decision at all: packaging with missing recyclability data is rated red, so 100 tonnes rated red by default rather than by design costs £13,000 more than the same tonnage rated green — larger than the gap between a realistic pack mix and a perfect one.

22 September 2026

Opportunity · Event

Dairy Forum Ireland, March 2027

Two days in Cork built around who should meet whom. Twelve speakers, four industry challenges. Tickets are free of charge and limited in number.

Cork · 3 & 4 March 2027

Become a Member, £15 a month Start free

Partner Directory

Find the expertise, not the logo.

Suppliers, technology and specialist services that work in dairy, searchable by the problem you need to solve rather than by category.

Launches November 2026. See how the directory will work.

Proof, not promotion

Dairy Forum Ireland, April 2026. The platform at work.

The first Dairy Forum Ireland brought 75 senior decision-makers from 23 organisations together for a day of curated conversation. No stands, no pitches, just the right people in the room. It is the model the whole platform is built on.

Senior attendees

Organisations represented

Delegates at Dairy Forum Ireland, April 2026

See the case for Dairy Forum Ireland, March 2027

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