Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was down by 3.3% in April when compared to the same month in 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The data published today (Tuesday, June 6) shows that there was an estimated intake of 1,019 million litres for April 2023, which is down 35.2 million litres on April 2022 (1,054 million litres).
It also marks a drop of 3.9% or 41.1 million litres when compared to the domestic milk intake recorded in April 2021.
Dr. Grzegorz Glaczynski, statistician for the CSO said: “domestic milk intake declined by 1.3% (31.7 million litres) during the period January to April 2023, compared with the same period in 2022”.
In the first four months of the year 2,382 million litres of milk was processed a decline of 31.7 million litres on the corresponding period last year.
CSO
The CSO data shows that fat content rose from 4.04% in April 2022 to 4.13% in April 2023, while protein content fell from 3.44% to 3.36% over the same period.
Butter production increased by 1,600 tonnes, from 29,600 tonnes in April 2022 to 31,200 tonnes in April 2023.
The total milk sold for human consumption decreased from 43.3 million litres in April 2022 to 42.1 million litres during the same month this year.
Whole milk sales stood at 27.3 million litres in April 2023, down from 28.2 million litres in April 2022.
Skimmed & semi-skimmed milk sales also dropped from 15 million litres to 14.8 million litres in April.
Skimmed milk powder (SMP) production stood at 15.7 million tonnes, which is back significantly on April 2022 when 21.7 million tonnes was produced.