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The increase in EU milk collections comes off the back of a reduction in supply for the first eight months of this year.
This had been due to farmers pulling back due to poor milk prices last year and the European Commission’s €150m supply reduction scheme, which meant 48,000 farmers across Europe took 861,000t of milk out of production.
With the exception of Ireland, milk production had been decreasing in Europe up until August this year, when farmers pushed to avail of the improved milk prices.
Increased European milk supply
From August 2017, France increased production by 3.6% and Germany increased production by 3.1%.
Overall EU milk collections stand at 12.37m tonnes, which is 3.73% ahead of the 11.92m tonnes collected in 2016 and 1.3% ahead of the 12.21m tonnes collected in September 2015.
Collections also exceeded the three-year average for the month by 3.16% and the five-year average by 6.62%.
Belgium and Ireland saw the biggest increase in milk collection compared with last year, but all of the EU’s top 10 milk producers saw their collections ahead of last year.
The EU collection up until September this year is estimated to stand at 118.07m tonnes, which would be 0.51% ahead of the same time last year.
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