Farms in the European Union produced around 160.8 million tonnes of raw milk in 2023, 0.8 million tonnes more than in 2022 and 15.8 million tonnes more than in 2013, the European statistical office reported on Monday.
The vast majority of raw milk was delivered to dairies (149.3 million tonnes) and used to make a whole range of fresh and manufactured dairy products, according to Eurostat. These dairies produced 22 million tonnes of drinking milk and 7.8 million tonnes of acidified dairy products, such as yoghurt.
However, most of the milk was used to produce cheese and butter. Dairy producers used 58.2 million tonnes of whole milk and 17.4 million tonnes of skimmed milk to make 10.6 million tonnes of cheese. A further 45.4 million tonnes of whole milk was used to produce 2.3 million tonnes of butter.
Last year, Germany was the largest producer of milk used for drinking in the EU, accounting for 19% of total production, ahead of Spain (15%) and France (13%).
Germany is also the leading producer of acidified dairy products (27%).
