Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 841.9 million litres for August 2019, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This was 2.2% above the figure recorded for August 2018, according to the office’s latest statistics, published today, Friday, September 27.
Comparing the August 2019 milk produce figures with those for August last year shows that the total milk sold for human consumption increased by 2.2% to 45.9 million litres, the CSO noted.
In addition, butter production was up 3.1% to 25,310t.
Looking at the released statistics, for the month of August it was found that the imported milk intake figure was 56.6 million litres – down slightly on the 63.7 million litres recorded for the same month last year. By comparison, imported milk intake for August 2017 was 61.4 million litres.
The imported milk intake refers to raw milk imports and imported milk for processing on contract. It does not include imported packaged milk for retail sales.
Whole milk sales came in at 28.8 million litres for August just gone; this is up substantially on the 27.3 million for August 2018 and also the 27.6 million litres the previous August.
Finally, it was noted that there was 13,100t of skimmed milk powder produced last month. This is lower than the 13,600t produced in August last year but up on August 2017’s figure of 11,500t.