Global milk deliveries

Updated 27 November 2023

Trends in global milk supplies impact on prices. Deliveries in the six key exporting regions are tracked to provide an overview of current production levels and trends in global milk supplies.

The milk production regions included are the EU-27, UK, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Combined, they account for more than 65% of global cow's milk production and around 80% of global exports of dairy products.

• Global milk deliveries averaged 817.1 million litres per day in September, a decline of 5.3 million litres per day, across the selected regions, compared to the same period last year. All regions except Australia recorded year on year volume decline.
• Milk deliveries in the EU averaged 369.6 million litres per day, a decline of 3.2 million litres per day (0.9%) compared to the same period last year.
• The decrease in EU total milk deliveries was driven by production declines in France for the fifth consecutive month, down by 4.5% (80 million litres). There were also significant declines of 3.3% in Italy (32 million litres) and 1.9% in Ireland (15 million litres). In contrast, Germany saw slight increases in production on last year, up 0.2% (5.6 million litres) and Poland was up 1.5% (14.9 million litres).
• In the UK deliveries were down 1.2% year on year in September, averaging 37.9 million litres per day.
• US production was almost flat (-0.1%), with only a 200,000 litre decline on the average daily deliveries in September compared to the same month last year.
• Australia’s production in September was also very similar to last year, with a slight increase of 100,000 litres per day average production. Monthly production is increasing in Australia as the milk season progresses and is likely to peak in October, according to seasonal trends.
• New Zealand was firmly into its milk production season in September, however still tracking slightly down (-300,000 litres) on last year’s figure.
• Argentina’s production saw a significant decrease on last year, down 3.6% (1.3 million litres) on average daily deliveries in September. Reports suggest that producer margins in Argentina were squeezed in September by low milk prices, leading to increased dairy cow slaughter as some producers took less productive cows out of the herd.

• The tracker is a baseline for comparing against actual production, not a forecast of milk production.
• The baseline is calculated using historic month-on-month movements in milk production, providing information on a typical milk year in each of the key regions.