Two-thirds (67%) of all whole milk produced in the European Union was used to make cheese and butter in 2018.

According to Eurostat, 10.3m tonnes of cheese and 2.4m tonnes of 'yellow products', such as butter, was produced from nearly 157m tonnes of whole milk.

Drinking milk accounted for about one-tenth (11 %) of all the whole milk used by dairies in 2018.

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Ireland produces 5% of all the whole milk produced in the EU. The statistics show that, in general, cows’ milk production was relatively high in regions across Denmark, Germany, Ireland, parts of France and other regions where there are good levels of grassland, whereby in countries in the southeast of Europe and the Mediterranean, dairy cow farming was uncommon.

Fourteen regions reported production of at least 2.5 million tonnes. Together, they contributed 29% of the EU total.

The highest regional levels of production were recorded in Bretagne, France (5.6m tonnes); Republic of Ireland (5.4m tonnes) and Lombardia, Italy (4.9m tonnes).

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