Milk production in the EU has been increasing for 10 years

EU farms produced 161.8 million tonnes of raw milk last year, 0.9 million tonnes more than in 2023 and 12.1 million tonnes more than in 2014.

This confirms the steady growth of raw milk production in the EU over the decade to 2024, Eurostat reports.

It is noted that the majority of raw milk produced in 2024 was delivered to dairies (150.8 million tonnes) and used to produce a range of fresh and finished dairy products.

The majority of EU milk was used to produce cheese and butter. In particular, 59.9 million tonnes of whole milk, together with 17.0 million tonnes of skimmed milk, were used to produce 10.8 million tonnes of cheese. A further 44.2 million tonnes of whole milk were used to produce 2.3 million tonnes of butter.

Germany was the largest producer of drinking milk in the EU, accounting for 18.8% of total production. It was also the largest producer of fermented milk products in the EU (27.1%), butter (20.6%) and cheese (22.5%).

Spain was the second largest producer of drinking milk in the EU, with 15.2% of total EU production, followed by France (12.7%). The Netherlands was the second largest producer of fermented milk products (16.8%), followed by Poland (10.4%).

France was the second largest producer of both butter (17.2% of EU total) and cheese (17.8%). Ireland had the third largest share of butter production in the EU (14.8%).

Tags: EU