Have a look at the recent numbers on milk production around the globe. See the changes from before the pandemic, learn which countries increased output and how they managed to do so, and discover the changes in international trade of dairy products.
European milk production
European milk production slowed in December for most countries, largely due to rising animal feed cost, but the overall EU-27 and UK production for 2020 still marked a 1.2% gain in relation to 2019. Nevertheless, some countries saw significant growth in December milk output, notably Ireland with 4.6% volume growth where farmers rely on pasture rather than grains and oil seeds.
Despite the abrupt decline in demand for milk in the HoReCa sector due to the pandemic, government relief programs and retails channels contributed to stabilizing the situation. Countries like China, where the pandemic was somewhat contained in the previous months, still imported significant amounts of dairy products. China purchased only 2% less of SMP and 4% less of WMP in 2020 than in 2019 but increased deliveries of whey powder and lactose by 38% and 23% respectively.
On the global market, New Zealand produced 0.7% more milk from July to December 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year. Australia also increased its milk output by 3% in the first 11 months of 2020 while a 1.9% growth was marked in the US milk production in a comparison between 2019 and 2020.
