Analysis Milk & Food
French milk supply recovers from early 2025 dip
After a difficult start to 2025, French milk production is showing signs of recovery. In the spring, volumes were clearly above those of the previous year. Between March and May, French dairy farming managed to recover. This largely eliminated the production backlog from the first months.
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Manuelle Iamakami
Milk production in May reached 2,19 million tonnes, up 2,1% from May 2024. It is also the highest May volume since 2021. The rebound follows a low in February, when production fell to 1,84 million tonnes, the lowest level in more than a year. Over the first five months of 2025, French dairies collected a total of 10,3 million tonnes, slightly below the 10,4 million tonnes collected in the same period last year (-1,05%).
Better weather and roughage
After a wet and difficult autumn, which affected the quality of the roughage, the spring of 2025 with higher temperatures and moderate precipitation gave a boost to grass growth. These seasonal influences contributed to a higher milk production per cow.
In addition, between March and April 2025, the margins of French dairy farms improved significantly, according to the monthly dairy barometers of the French dairy federation CNIEL. These improvements probably encouraged dairy farmers to maintain or even increase their production in May, which contributed to the recovery.
Bluetongue under control
Controlling the bluetongue virus also plays a major role in the recovery of milk production. Since mid-2024, more than 9.000 French dairy farms have been affected by the virus. In August 2024, France launched a major vaccination programme to contain the outbreak. In April of this year, another 7 million doses were distributed in the most vulnerable regions. These campaigns, aimed at keeping dairy herds healthy, have limited production losses.