Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 591.6 million litres for August 2013. This was 8.2 per cent above the corresponding 2012 figure, according to the latest update from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) out this morning.
Comparing the August 2013 milk produce figures with those for August 2012 shows that total milk sold for human consumption decreased by 1.2 per cent to 41.1 million litres and butter production was up 9.3 per cent to 15,300 tonnes.
In addition, according to the CSO in the EU total milk intake was 83,232 million litres from January to July 2013, down 1.3 per cent compared the first seven months of 2012. The top three milk-producing European countries were Germany, 17,904m litres, France 14,653m litres and the UK 8,047 million litres. Ireland ranked seventh just ahead of Spain with 3,578 million litres for the first seven months of 2013.