43.3 million litres of milk was sold for human consumption in June this year, a small drop from the figure in May, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Milk sales fell by 1.8 million litres this month, or 1.3 %, but was not too far off the same figure for June 2018, missing its 43.9 billion litre reading by just 0.6 billion litres.
Among dairy products such as whole milk, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, butter, and skimmed milk powder, there was none to have experienced a seasonal increase in sales.
Whole milk sales fell from 28 million litres in May to 27.4 million litres in June, but this was a 2.2% increase on June 2018.
Skimmed and semi-skimmed milk sales fell from 17.2 million litres in May to 15.9 million litres in June. This was also a similar decrease from its June 2018 reading, falling by over 6%.
Butter production fell from 31’000 tonnes in May to 28’100 tonnes in June, but this was an 8.9% increase on June 2018.
Skimmed milk powder production fell by 23.6% in June to 18’500 tonnes, but this represents a flat growth when compared with June 2018.
First Quarter Trade
In terms of trade over the first quarter of the year (January to April), the EU imported just over 53 million tonnes of milk from Ireland, 0.6% more than in the same period in 2018.
Among the EU countries, Germany (10.8 million tonnes), France (8.5 million tonnes), the UK (5.2 million tonnes), and the Netherlands (4.6 million tonnes) were the biggest importers in this period.
However, among these countries, only the UK imported more in the four-month period this year, reporting a 3.6% increase in imports, despite the mass uncertainty over Brexit.
Germany (0.2%), France (1.5%), and the Netherlands (2.8%), all imported less milk from Ireland this year.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
