Milk intake rises in April as supplies surpass 986 million litres

Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 986.3 million litres for April 2020, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This represents a 3.5% increase in April, year-on-year, the office noted.

The increase works out at a rise of some 33 million litres over the April 2019 figure, which was 953.3 million litres.

Comparing the April 2020 milk produce figures with those for April 2019 shows that total milk sold for human consumption increased by 0.7% from 45.2 million litres to 45.5 million litres.

Of this, 30.4 million litres were sold as whole milk, while the remaining 15.1 million litres went into skimmed and semi skimmed milk sales.

Meanwhile, butter production was up 2.3% from 28,400t in April 2019 to 29,100t last month, the CSO said.

Fat content held steady at 3.94% on average for April in both 2019 and 2020, while protein content rose slightly from 3.4% to 3.42% on average.

For the first four months of the year, milk production is up 3.6%, from 2.141 billion litres from January to April 2019, to 2.219 billion litres from the start of 2020 to the end of last month.

At European level, from January to March 2020, some 39.82 million tonnes of milk supplies were taken in by creameries and pasteurisers around the union.

This is up 2.2% on the 39.97 million tonnes taken in during the same period last year.