Annual milk production
Between 650 and 700 billion kilos of milk are produced each year worldwide (source: FAO Food and Agriculture Organization). For many years now, world milk production has reflected a slight upward trend.
The bulk of this annual production (over two-thirds) is consumed as milk, yoghurt, cream and desserts. A sizeable proportion of these products are sold on the domestic market or in neighbouring regions.
Between 10 and 15 per cent of all milk is processed into cheese. Eight per cent is used to make butter. The remainder, some seven per cent, is processed into milk powder, condensed milk, caseinate, whey powder and lactose.
This means that over 30 per cent of the annual milk produced is converted into products that keep for a long time and can be transported over large distances, such as cheese, butter and milk powder. These products are traded all over the world. Interestingly, dairy drinks, yoghurts, cream products and desserts are also increasingly transported over large distances.
This 30 per cent share is a global average. In most European countries, together with New Zealand and Australia, a far larger proportion of the milk produced is used to make products that keep longer and are easier to transport. In excess of 70 per cent of the milk produced in non-western countries is retained for internal consumption.
Roughly six to seven per cent of the milk produced globally is sold outside the country where it is produced. The European Union is treated as a single country in these statistics.
Read more about milk and the economy