EU-28: Dairy and Products Semi-annual
In 2016 milk deliveries in the European Union (EU) increased by an estimated 0.5 percent and are expected to only slightly increase in 2017. In 2016 production of cheese, whole dry milk (WDM) and butter increased, which remained in demand on the world market. Non-fat dried milk (NFDM) production also increased but was used by the EU in the market intervention programs. In 2017 an increasing volume of milk is expected to be processed into cheese. Production of butter, NFDM and WDM is expected to stagnate. The European Commission (EC) continued intervention on the dairy market in 2016 through subsidizing public stocks of NFDM, and private storage of NFDM, butter and cheese. After six months break the EC purchases of NFDM for public intervention stocks started again in April 2017. In addition, the EC successfully implemented a voluntary milk production reduction program, allocating U.S. $168 million for compensation paid to farmers.
