Inside Milk
Irish fanciers produce above average
Milk production in Ireland in December will be at a comparable level to a year earlier. Compared to the 5-year average, the milk supply also shows no outliers. What is the result for the entire calendar year 2020?
Read this article?
Become a subscriber and get instant access
Choose the subscription that suits you
In the month of December, Irish dairy farmers produced 262.300 tonnes of milk. That is a minimum increase of approximately 4% compared to last year. In December 2019, the milk supply was more than 250.800 million tons. Compared to the 5-year average, milk production over the past year was approximately 12% higher. The average over the past 5 years is 233.800 tons of milk.
Europe increasingly competitive
These are good figures for Irish dairy farmers. The European Commission recently reported that the European Union currently has the most competitive price has for cheddar and that the current price for whole milk powder is more competitive than the price in New Zealand and the United States. It results in a 3% higher European dairy export compared to 2019.
The fact that this is good news for Irish fanciers is mainly because Ireland, together with Italy and... Poland, is leading in high European milk production. The increase in Ireland, among others, has contributed to the European production increase of 3,4% in skimmed milk powder, 3,3% in milk, 2,8% in butter, 1,6% in cheese and 1,4% in whole milk powder.
The year 2020 ended higher
For the whole of 2020, Irish milk production amounted to 8,57 million tonnes, an increase of approximately 4% compared to 2019. In that year, milk supply amounted to 8,24 million tonnes of milk. Compared to the multi-year average, an increase of almost 11% is visible. Over that period, Irish milk production was 7,79 million tonnes.