A deeper dive into the bunny milk’s departure

Ann Bernstein - On 26 August this year, Nestlé announced it would be discontinuing a once-beloved drink – Nesquik.

The last thing readers remembered, this strawberry, chocolate and banana (yes, that existed!) concoction was a South African favourite – especially for kids. It’s been in the country since 1974 – talk about nostalgia.

But now Nesquik is no more and it’s apparently due to low consumer demand. This titbit of news leads most people to shrug and move on with their day.

Others may have screamed and rent their garments (we do not know). And others, still, went on to the Takealot marketplace and started selling containers of Nesquik for three times the usual price (true story).

But the story of why Nesquik will no longer exist is an interesting one. And it’s got to do with two things: milk and sugar.



Milk matters

Milk, the thing you need to mix your Nesquik, is different now from what it used to be when we were kids. Not necessarily what’s in it (we’ll leave that for science to tell you), but its price.

Milk, if readers haven’t noticed, has become very expensive.

Since last year, South Africans have been consuming less milk – not because we don’t like it, but because we can’t afford it.

Milk, eggs and cheese are now the most expensive they have been in 14 years. In a single year, South Africans went from paying R25.88 for a 2-litre carton of fresh milk to forking out R30.14.

The SA Milk Processors Organisation says the rise in the cost of commodities such as milk has not been seen in the last 63 years.

Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and the high energy cost have pushed prices up on everything.

On top of that, we have a decrease in supply. Milk producers cannot keep up with the price of keeping dairy cows. There has been a sharp increase in stock feed prices, in particular yellow maize and soya beans.

Load shedding also does not help.



Price

Milk was never dirt cheap. Readers may remember it being somewhat of a luxury, as kids, to have a whole glass of milk just for drinking. And heaven help you if you finished the milk your parents were saving for their coffee.

The income bracket of people who have not changed their milk-buying habits – the higher income earners – is also more likely to follow a global decrease in the demand for cow’s milk.

If you look at the US, for instance, cow milk consumption is at an all-time low. The average person used to drink 109 litres of milk per year in the 1970s. Now it’s down to 60 litres.

Some of this is for health reasons. Though cow milk indeed contains calcium and magnesium, and folate and a host of other vitamins, it also has a higher amount of lactose than milk from other animals.

And it’s estimated that 65% to 70% of the world’s population has some sort of lactose intolerance.

This has led to high-income consumers turning to alternatives such as oat and soy milk. This writer is ready to go out on a limb and say that the type of consumers who drink oat or soy milk are not likely to mix it with Nesquik.



Sugar, sugar

So, what about the coloured powder that Nesquik is made from?

Nesquik granules are made mostly of sugar, flavourings and colourants. Nestlé removed artificial colourants in its products in 2013 (something you would have seen emblazoned on all its labels). But that has not changed the fact that the product is relatively high in sugar.

Two teaspoons of Nesquik powder in a 200ml glass of 1% milk have about 10g of sugar. That’s about four teaspoons of sugar in each glass of Nesquik – not exactly the ideal drink for the sugar-conscious.

Parents, in particular, are keeping a close eye on how much sugar their kids get.

Driven perhaps by South Africa’s 2018 sugar tax, the public as a whole has become more conscious of the amount of sugar in what they drink.



Market forces

So, the demise of Nesquik could be the culmination of myriad forces. But is it? What does Nesquik have to say beyond their “low demand” explanation?

City Press spoke to Takudzwa Mupfurutsa, business executive officer of dairy for Nestlé East and Southern Africa.

Mupfurutsa mentioned that Nesquik’s discontinuation is a mixture of strategic company decisions, and economic and market conditions.

Mupfurutsa said: “The decision to discontinue Nesquik wasn’t taken lightly. It was based on a careful analysis of market trends, sales data and consumer preferences.”

“While we acknowledge that there has been a passionate response from consumers towards the discontinuation, we must also consider the broader market dynamics which include competition, production costs and brand evolution and focus,” Mupfurutsa said.

In South Africa, Nesquik’s main competitors (if you don’t count people using milkshake syrup to make their own Nesquik-esque concoctions) are the Spoonfulls brand sold in Checkers and Pick n Pay’s private label powdered flavoured milk products.

And yes, the prices of sugar and milk have played a part, with Mupfurutsa noting that consumers and shoppers have had to make hard choices about what they spend on from the grocery aisle.



‘Squaring the circle’

Trendtype, the Africa-focused market researcher, speculated in August that “one way Nestlé is squaring the circle of keeping prices low in an inflationary environment that eats into consumer spending is by focusing on products it can use local inputs for and produce in volume”.

In other words, Nestlé is trying to focus on making products for which it can get the ingredients locally and make a lot at once.

We’re guessing that palmitate, a fatty acid attained from palm oil, which is present in its chocolate flavour, is one of those products.

We would be remiss in not mentioning that the production of palm oil is one of Nestlé’s biggest environmental and ethical doozies – with the company under huge pressure to source palm oil in a way that does not cause deforestation.



Nesquik die-hards

As an olive branch to Nesquik fans, Mupfurutsa notes that Nestlé will still be producing Milo, Hot Chocolate and Cocoa for its consumers. Although this might not be much solace for the fans of Nesquik Strawberry.

Trendtype noted that Nestlé’s discontinuation announcement “leaves open the possibility it may sell Nesquik as an imported brand at some point”, but that remains to be seen.

And although the product is discontinued in South Africa, it’s still available in a whopping 100 countries.

So, if you’re still yearning for the nostalgic taste of authentic Nesquik “bunny milk”, a cross-border excursion or some clever online shopping may be one way to satisfy your craving. – Fin24/City Press