In 2023, the European Union produced 160.8 million tons of fresh milk, marking an increase of 0.8 million tons compared to 2022 and 15.8 million tons more than in 2013, according to Eurostat.
The majority of fresh milk—149.3 million tons—was delivered to dairies for the production of fresh and processed dairy products. EU dairies produced 22 million tons of drinking milk and 7.8 million tons of fermented products like yogurt in 2023.
However, most of the milk was used for cheese and butter production. A total of 58.2 million tons of whole milk and 17.4 million tons of skimmed milk were used to produce 10.6 million tons of cheese. An additional 45.4 million tons of whole milk went into making 2.3 million tons of butter.
Germany emerged as the EU’s largest producer of drinking milk (19% of total production), fermented dairy products (27%), butter (20%), and cheese (22%).
Spain ranked second in drinking milk production with 15%, followed by France at 13%. The Netherlands was the second-largest producer of fermented dairy products (17%), with Poland in third place (10%).
France secured the second spot for both butter and cheese production (18% of EU totals for each), while Ireland ranked third for butter (13%) and Italy for cheese (13%).
