Butter drives Irish dairy exports to the UK up
Credit: Bord Bia, Kerrygold
Ireland’s food and drink exports to the UK continue to go from strength to strength, with dairy products, from cheese to butter, achieving 18% value growth in 2025. Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, has released its latest Export Performance and Prospects Report, showing that overall export values have risen by 14% to €6.7 billion in 2025.
Beef, dairy and prepared consumer foods (PCF), such as bread and ham, were the primary drivers of growth for the UK market in the face of inflation, geopolitical uncertainty, extreme weather events and evolving consumer behaviours. Overall, Europe, the United Kingdom and North America were the main sources of growth, together accounting for over 80% of butter export volumes and more than 85% of cheese exports from the island.
Butter and cheese were also the primary drivers of dairy price growth, accounting for 75% (or €650 million) of the increase in export value for Ireland globally. Their combined share of total dairy exports rose to 50%, up from 41% in 2023.
Top Irish export categories to the UK in 2025 versus 2024:
· Beef +25% (€1.6 billion, £1.4 billion)
· Dairy +18% (€1.3 billion, £1.1 billion)
· Prepared consumer foods +10% (€2.5 billion, £2.2 billion)
Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) reports milk collections are on track for a record year of approximately 8.8 billion litres. Good weather conditions in the spring and summer months supported grass growth during the critical peak milk period.
UK market manager Conor O’Sullivan says: “In a highly volatile market, we’ve once again demonstrated that through partnerships built on trust, Irish suppliers are able to work with UK retailers, chefs, and hospitality businesses to develop and deliver premium products that taste great and help meet sustainability targets, backed by Origin Green.”
Irish food and drink exporters are entering 2026 with a more cautious outlook, despite a good 2025 performance. GIRA market research predicts that consumption of solid dairy fats will grow by 0.6% and cheese by 1.4% in the UK in 2026 (GIRA, 2025b). Inflation continues to affect the market with growing affordability concerns. According to Bord Bia’s CEO Sentiment Survey with senior executives from Irish food and drink exporting companies (representing €9.5 billion in exports), overall sentiment remains moderately positive, with just over half of companies expecting export growth in 2026. Growth expectations have softened compared with the previous year, reflecting ongoing cost pressures, geopolitical uncertainty and subdued consumer demand in some markets.
