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The day before yesterday at 10:30 am -Alex Gourvillier
The New Zealand Dairy Association (DCANZ) has published milk production figures for January. The decline is clear compared to the previous year. Australia has just started 2024 with increased milk production.
In December last year, New Zealand's milk supply was still posting green numbers, but the trend will not continue into January. At 2.324 million tons, supply is 1.19% below the level of the same month in 2023. Looking at the whole year 2023, milk production showed an increase compared to the previous year. Supply reached 21.245 million tons, recording a limited increase of 0.9% last year.
This downward trend has been broken. However, a decline is already imminent. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects a slight decline to 21.2 million tons for this year. The USDA indicates that the decline will be mainly due to El Niño-related weather patterns, lower milk prices and continued cost inflation among dairy farmers. All of this leads to a smaller dairy herd in New Zealand.
Australian milk production is on the rise
In contrast to New Zealand, Australia's milk supply is showing fairly strong growth figures. Dairy Australia reported milk production of 727.6 million liters in January. This represents an increase of 5.2% compared to the same month of the previous year. The USDA expects Australian milk supplies to increase by 1% to 8.5 million tonnes for the full year of 2024. This increase comes as livestock prices decline and labor shortages ease. These two factors have had a major impact on the continuing decline in milk production in recent years.
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