Almond Milk Pushes U.S. Milk Alternatives To Double-Digit Growth In 2010

The emergence of premium-priced almond milk helped boost the growth in the US milk alternatives category by 13 percent in 2010. Blue Diamond Growers’ Almond Breeze and Dean Foods Co.’s Silk Pure Almond brands are battling each other for leadership in the almond milk segment. Milk alternatives, especially soymilk, are becoming more popular as U.S. consumers’ consumption of cows’ milk has declined, partly through vegan lifestyles and some consumers’ intolerance to cows' milk, and almond milk is helping to drive that trend. The National Milk Producers Federation is calling for a ban on using the word “milk” in describing non-dairy milk, although sales of milk alternatives are small compared with regular milk. Silk, known also for soymilk, is extending its range of milk alternatives, with a new coconut milk.