EU farms produced an estimated 161.8 million tonnes of raw milk in 2024. This marks an increase of 0.9 million tonnes compared with 2023 and a rise of 12.1 million tonnes compared with 2014 (149.7 million tonnes). This latest development confirms the relatively steady growth in raw milk production in the EU over the decade to 2024.
This information comes from data on milk and milk products published by Eurostat. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on milk and milk products.
Source dataset: apro_mk_farm
Most milk used for butter and cheese production
The majority of the raw milk produced in 2024 was delivered to dairies (150.8 million tonnes) and used to produce a range of fresh and manufactured dairy products.
Most of the EU’s milk was used for cheese and butter production. Specifically, 59.9 million tonnes of whole milk, together with 17.0 million tonnes of skimmed milk, were used to produce 10.8 million tonnes of cheese. A further 44.2 million tonnes of whole milk were used to produce 2.3 million tonnes of butter and so-called ‘yellow products’ (such as butteroil and rendered butter) and generated 41.5 million tonnes of skimmed milk.
Source dataset: apro_mk_pobta (EU aggregates estimated for this release)
Germany was the largest producer of drinking milk in the EU, accounting for 18.8% of total production. It was also the EU’s largest producer of acidified milk products (27.1%), butter (20.6%) and cheese (22.5%).
Spain was the second largest EU producer of drinking milk, with 15.2% of the EU total, followed by France (12.7%). The Netherlands was the second largest producer of acidified milk products (16.8%), followed by Poland (10.4%).
France was the second largest producer of both butter (17.2% of the EU total) and cheese (17.8%). Ireland accounted for the third highest share of EU butter production (14.8%).
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on milk and milk products
- Thematic section on agriculture statistics
- Database on agriculture statistics
Methodological note
Dairy products are recorded in terms of their weight.
