The number of farmers supplying liquid milk to processors dropped by 21% to 1,328 in the 2018-2019 milk year, according to the National Milk Agency’s 2019 annual report.The 352 farmers, the majority of whom were Glanbia suppliers who took its voluntary restructuring scheme, switched from liquid milk to manufacturing milk. In 2018-19, these farmers had total supplies of 203m litres. They supplied 71m litres for liquid consumption.
The number of farmers supplying liquid milk to processors dropped by 21% to 1,328 in the 2018-2019 milk year, according to the National Milk Agency’s 2019 annual report.
The 352 farmers, the majority of whom were Glanbia suppliers who took its voluntary restructuring scheme, switched from liquid milk to manufacturing milk. In 2018-19, these farmers had total supplies of 203m litres. They supplied 71m litres for liquid consumption.
The remaining farmers were allowed to increase their eligible winter supplies to meet market requirements last year.
The report found that while Irish consumers have the highest per-capita consumption of fresh drinking milk in the world, at 118l per person per year, total consumption of fresh drinking milk fell by over 1% to 578m litres.
Last year, the domestic fresh milk market used 5% of domestic milk supplies.
Domestic supplies from farmers had a 75% share of the domestic fresh milk market, while milk imports from Northern Ireland had a market share of 25%.
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