Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was a sizeable jump of 9.4% in the month of September 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the latest figures, released today (Wednesday, October 31), the total domestic intake was estimated at 715.6 million litres for last month.

This is considerably more than the same period in 2017, when 654 million litres were recorded in domestic intake during the month of September.

Image source: Central Statistics Office

Comparing the September 2018 milk produce figures with those for September 2017 shows that the total milk sold for human consumption decreased by 1.6% or 700,000L to 44.0 million litres, while butter production was up 18.7% to 21,600t.

Whole milk sales dropped from 27.1 million litres in September 2017 to 26.4 million litres recorded last month.

Meanwhile, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk sales held steady, recording a figure of 17.6 million litres for the month of September in both 2017 and 2018.

The released data also showed that the imported milk intake for the month of September rose slightly in 2018, up to 60.2 million litres from the 58.8 million litres brought in during September 2017.

Such figures also do not take into account imported packaged milk for retail sale, according to the CSO.

Skimmed milk powder production also saw an increase; 9,900t were produced last month, which is up from 8,900t produced in September of last year.