EU farms produced an estimated 160.0 million tonnes of raw milk in 2022.
Most of the raw milk production in the EU is delivered to dairies; only 9.8 million tonnes were used on farms, being consumed by the farmer’s family, sold directly to consumers, used as feed, or processed directly. Of the 149.9 million tonnes of milk delivered to dairies, 145.6 million tonnes were cows’ milk, the rest being milk from other livestock: ewes (sheep), goats and buffaloes.
Source datasets: apro_mk_pobta and apro_mk_farm
Among the fresh products obtained, dairies in the EU produced 22.5 million tonnes of drinking milk and 7.7 million tonnes of acidified milk products. Regarding manufactured products, dairies produced 2.3 million tonnes of butter from 46.4 million tonnes of whole milk; 10.4 million tonnes of cheese from 59.2 million tonnes of whole milk and 16.9 million tonnes of skimmed milk; 3.0 million tonnes of milk powder and 55.9 million tonnes of whey.
This article marks World Milk Day, celebrated every year on 1 June.