In Germany: Milk consumption lower than it has been for 30 years

Milk consumption in Germany fell last year to its lowest level since 1991.

As the Federal Information Center for Agriculture (BZL) announced on Monday, the per capita consumption of drinking milk in 2021 fell by 2.2 kilograms to an average of just 47.8 kilograms.

The increased consumption of plant-based milk alternatives was mentioned as a possible reason.

According to the information, a total of 32 million tons of cow's milk were delivered to dairy companies, 1.9 percent less than in the previous year.

Of this, 31.2 million tons came from domestic producers.

The proportion of organically produced milk in milk deliveries in 2021 was 2.6 percent higher than in the previous year and reached 1.3 million tons.

25.3 kilograms of cheese per capita

The BZL recorded a decrease of seven percent to 471,100 tons in the production of butter, milk fat and milk spread products.

This corresponded to 6.1 kilograms of butter per person, 200 grams less than a year earlier.

Mildly acidified branded butter made up the largest share of the total production volume at almost 70 percent, but also recorded the largest decline at minus 13.5 percent compared to the previous year.

The volume of cheese produced, on the other hand, rose by one percent to 2.67 million tons compared to 2020. This continued the long-term growth trend in cheese production.

However, the per capita consumption of cheese in Germany remained roughly constant at 25.3 kilograms.

The export volume rose by almost three percent to 1.36 million tons.

The number of cow-keeping farms in Germany fell by 2,500 in 2021 to 54,800 farms, which kept a total of 3.83 million dairy cows.

That was around two percent less than in 2020. The number of dairy cows per farm continued to rise to an average of 70 animals.