Irish creameries and pasteurisers took in 277.7 million litres of domestic milk in December 2022, an increase of 7.4% on the same month for 2021.
Data released today (Friday, February 3) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) also allow for a whole-year comparison between 2022 and 2021, now that figures are in for the last month of last year.
The amount of milk taken in by creameries and pasteurisers throughout 2022 did increase, but much more marginally than in the monthly comparison.
2022 milk intake stood at around 8.820 billion litres, an increase of 0.7% on the 8.758 billion litres figure for 2021.
The average fat content of the milk collected in December 2022 was 4.85%, an increase on 4.75% in December 2021.
The protein content, meanwhile, was 3.76% in December 2022, up from 3.72% in December 2021.
The annual average fat content for 2022 as a whole was 4.28%, an increase on 4.23% for 2021, while annual average protein content was unchanged at 3.55%.
Total milk sold for human consumption (not including imported packaged milk for retail sale) was 39.1 million litres in December 2022, a slight decrease on 39.7 million litres 12 months earlier.
Throughout all of last year, 502.5 million litres of milk was sold for human consumption, a decrease on 506.4 million litres sold in all of 2021.
Whole milk sales in the last month of 2022 stood at 24.2 million litres, down from 24.5 million litres in December of 2021, while sales for all last year stood at 320.9 million litres, a decrease from 323.1 million litres on the year before.
The sales of other products is broken down as follows:
Product December 2022 December 2021 2022 (whole year) 2021 (whole year) Skimmed and semi-skimmed milk 14.9 million litres 15.2 million litres 181.6 million litres 183.3 million litres Butter 13,900t 12,200t 268,700t 275,600t Skimmed milk powder 10,500t 7,400t 173,700t 147,700t Cheese 6,700t 6,800t 287,000t 285,400t