Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 327.4 million litres for February 2020, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This represents a 7.8% increase over February 2019; however, the office highlighted that it should be noted that there were 29 days in February 2020.

Comparing the February 2020 milk produce figures with those for February 2019 shows that total milk sold for human consumption increased by 1.1% to 42.4 million litres.

Meanwhile, butter production was up 2.3% to 10,800t.

The information used to compile this release was collected under EU Directive 96/16/EC, the CSO notes. The office stressed that the time period reported – February – is before the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

In a further breakdown of figures, in particular the 42.4 million litres sold for human consumption, some 25.5 million litres of this was from whole milk sales. This is up 200,000L on the corresponding figure for February 2019, some 25.3 million litres.

Meanwhile, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk sales amounted to 16.8 million litres in February 2020 – also up 200,000L on the figure from February last year.

On a European scale, EU milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers saw a marginal increase in intake of 0.5% in 2019 compared to 2020.

Ireland saw the largest increase recorded across Europe with a rise of 5.3%, going from 7,810,000t to 8,227,000t of produce, the CSO says, quoting figures from New Cronos database, Eurostat.