A good year for Irish dairy industry
IRELAND –, Strong international skim milk powder (SMP) markets in the second half of 2000 has seen the Irish dairy industry benefit from a 7.9% increase in returns for butter and SMP, according to the Irish Dairy Board (IDB).
The last 12 months have also been good in terms of dairy production, with butter manufacture up by 1.5% to 137,000 tonnes, SMP and whole milk powder up by 1.1% and 4.4% respectively, and casein output rising by 1.9% to 47,000 tonnes. However, at 95,000 tonnes, cheese production recorded a decline of 1.1%.
International markets experienced similar improvements and worldwide milk supply grew by 1.3% with increases in Oceania (+8.1%), North America (+2.2%), South America (+2.7%), Asia (+1.6%) and South Asia (+1.4%). The EU experienced a slight decline (-0.5%) as did Central Eastern European countries (-0.9%).
Noel Cawley, IDB managing director, said: “2000 was an exceptional year for Irish and international dairy industries, as SMP prices reached near record levels and markets for all other dairy products experienced some improvement.” The IDB predicts that milk production in Australia and New Zealand will continue to grow in 2001 and that Oceania’s share of world dairy markets will increase at the expense of the EU.
