The latest figures published by the EU milk market observatory (MMO) shows that milk production for 2015 from the 28 EU member states increased by 2.5% compared with the previous year. An increase of 2.5% may not seem major, but given that the EU is the world’s largest milk producer, the volumes involved are very significant, with milk output increasing by an extra 3.2m tonnes.

As has been the trend all year, Irish dairy farmers lead the way in terms of production growth, with the MMO estimating milk output 13.3% ahead of 2014 levels.

Farmers from the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) region also increased production significantly in 2015. Milk output in Luxembourg grew by 8.8%, while in Belgium, milk production for 2015 was more than 7% ahead of the previous year. Most significant of all in terms of volumes is the Netherlands, where dairy farmers expanded production by 6.8% in 2015.

Most other European countries expanded milk production in 2015 as dairy quotas were finally lifted at the end of March last year. In terms of member states with significant dairy production, Denmark milk output grew by over 3% for the year, while output from the UK was up 2.5%. German dairy output grew by 1.6% in 2015, while there was a marginal increase of 0.2% from French farmers.