Milk consumption in Germany experienced another decline in 2023, as indicated by government data.
Preliminary data released by the Bundesinformationszentrums Landwirtschaft (BZL) indicates that the per capita milk consumption in Germany dropped to under 46kg in 2023, down from 46.1kg in 2022, marking a continuation of the previous year’s record low.
In the same period, the production of drinking milk decreased by nearly 1%, totaling approximately 4.2 million tons compared to the preceding year.
Per capita cheese consumption declined from 24.6kg to 23.8kg, marking a reduction of over 3%.
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Nevertheless, cheese production rose to 2.66 million tons in 2023 from 2.64 million tons in 2022, driven by increasing exports.
In 2023, Germany achieved a record-breaking export of cheese, totaling 1.41 million tons, marking a 6.6% increase compared to the previous year.
The dairy cow population saw a 2.5% decrease in 2023, amounting to around 3.7 million animals.
As per the BZL, butter consumption has also seen a decline in Germany.
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The per capita consumption of butter, milk fat, and milk fat products dropped by 1.4% to 5.6kg in the country.
Butter production experienced a nearly 4% decline last year, while the overall production of the “butter, milk fat, and milk fat products” category saw a slight increase of 1.8% to 481,000 tons.
Earlier this month, the BZL reported that meat consumption in Germany reached a new record low in 2023.
Consumption decreased by 0.8% year-on-year to 51.6kg, setting a new record low for the country, following a decline to 52kg per person in 2022.
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