European Union: Dairy and Products Annual

EU milk production in 2025 is forecast to decline marginally to 149.4 million metric tons (MMT), from an estimated 149.6 MMT in 2024, as a result of declining cow numbers, tight dairy farmer margins, environmental regulations, and disease outbreaks. Lower milk production is expected to be only partially offset by lower expected fluid milk consumption, and as a result factory use consumption is also forecast to slightly decrease in 2025. This is requiring dairy processors to carefully decide for which products they will use the available milk. Cheese production is forecast to remain the primary output goal of the EU dairy processing industry, supported by solid domestic consumption and continued export demand. EU27 cheese production in 2025 is forecast to reach 10.8 MMT, up by 0.6 percent from 2024. This comes at the expense of the production of butter, non-fat dry milk (NFDM), and whole milk powder (WMP).