Ireland’s domestic milk intake for October 2018 was over 20% higher than the same month last year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO’s Milk Statistics, released today, November 30, show that 642.4 million litres were taken in by creameries and pasteurisers last month – a 20.2% increase on the 534.3 million litres in October 2017.

In this year up to October, 6,864.8 million litres have been taken in, a 2.8% increase on the first 10 months of last year.

Image source: CSO

Looking at the figures in greater detail, they show that total milk sold for human consumption has decreased by 0.3% on last year, to 44.6 million litres.

However, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, as well as skimmed milk powder, all saw increases, and while these were marginal for the former, the powder saw an almost 50% increase – from 5,700t to 10,000t.

On the other hand, butter production saw a considerable increase – up 15.5% to 20,000t.

The imported milk intake also rose, though less drastically then the domestic figure, increasing from 55.4 million litres to 57.6 million litres – an increase just shy of 4%.

The CSO also released data on the milk intake for each EU member state for the first eight months of the year.

These statistics show that the milk intake here has increased notably in the last three months: the January-August figure for this year was only 0.2% ahead of where it was in the same period in 2017.