Milk market in Europe - statistics and facts 2026

Europe milk market in 2026

Milk is one of the cornerstones of European agriculture. It is produced in every EU country, sustains hundreds of thousands of farms, and accounts for a significant share of the value of the blocs farm output. Taken as a single unit, the European Union is the second largest milk producer in the world, trailing only India and comfortably ahead of the United States. In 2024 the EU produced an estimated 161.8 million tonnes of raw milk, and the sector remains central to both the rural economy and the European diet.

What makes the European milk market distinctive is not just its scale but its structure. Production is concentrated in a handful of northern and western countries, most of the milk is turned into cheese and butter rather than sold as fresh milk, and the whole system rests on a shrinking number of ever more productive cows. Europe is also the world leading exporter of dairy products, which ties its fortunes to global demand as much as to what happens on the continent. For the wider context, see our overview of the global dairy industry.

Before diving into the numbers, a note on definitions. Throughout this report, the EU means the 27 member states after the departure of the United Kingdom. Raw milk production covers milk from all animals, though cows account for the overwhelming majority. Where a figure is a Eurostat estimate, a country share rather than an exact tonnage, or a forecast for a future year, it is flagged as such.

How much milk does the EU produce, and is it growing?

EU raw milk output has grown steadily for most of the past decade. Farms produced 149.7 million tonnes in 2014 and about 161.8 million tonnes in 2024, an increase of roughly 12 million tonnes, or a little over 8 percent, across ten years. The 2024 figure was up 0.9 million tonnes on 2023, continuing a pattern of slow, grinding gains rather than dramatic swings.

A big part of this story is the abolition of milk quotas in 2015. For three decades, EU production had been capped by a quota system designed to prevent surpluses. When those limits were lifted, the sector restructured and modernised, herds shifted toward the most productive animals, cross-border milk flows increased, and output rose. The chart below traces the climb from 2014 to 2024.

A decade of steady growth: from 149.7 million tonnes in 2014 to about 161.8 million in 2024, though recent gains have been slim.

The momentum, however, is fading. Growth flattened in 2022 and 2023, and the USDA now forecasts that EU cows milk deliveries will dip slightly in 2025, held back by falling cow numbers, tight farmer margins, environmental rules and animal disease. The decade of expansion that followed the end of quotas looks to be giving way to a plateau, and possibly a gentle decline.

Which European countries produce the most milk?

European milk production is heavily concentrated. In 2024, Germany alone produced a little more than one fifth, about 22 percent, of the EU raw cows milk, which works out at roughly 32 million tonnes. Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy together provided about 65 percent of the total, and if Ireland and Spain are added, the leading group accounts for well over 70 percent of everything the bloc produces.

Each of these countries has its own dairy character. Germany combines a large herd with a dense processing industry and leads across nearly every product category. France pairs high volumes with a deep tradition of protected-origin cheeses. The Netherlands is intensive and export-focused, Ireland is grass-based and butter-heavy, Poland has grown strongly since joining the EU, and Italy channels much of its milk into famous hard cheeses. Denmark, though smaller in total volume, runs some of the most productive farms in the world.

The current map is partly a product of the post-quota restructuring that began in 2015. Freed from production caps, the most competitive regions expanded fastest, deepening a north-south divide within the bloc. The dense dairy belts of northern Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland scaled up around large, grass or maize-fed herds and export-focused processors, while parts of southern and eastern Europe, where farms are smaller and more fragmented, grew more slowly or contracted. Poland has been one of the notable success stories, expanding output and modernising its processing base since joining the EU, even though its farm structure remains dominated by small holdings.

This concentration means that national events can move the whole European market. A strong or weak grass-growing season in Ireland, a policy shift in the Netherlands, or a change in German processing demand all ripple outward. It also means that the health of Europe milk market is, to a large degree, the health of a small club of large producers.

What is European milk turned into?

Most European milk never reaches a shop as liquid milk. Of the 161.8 million tonnes produced in 2024, about 150.8 million tonnes were delivered to dairies, with the remaining 11 million tonnes used on farms for feed, family consumption or direct sales. The dairies then convert that milk into a wide range of fresh and manufactured products, measured by weight in the chart below.

Drinking milk leads by weight: but cheese, whey, powder and butter absorb the bulk of the milk once you account for how concentrated they are.

By finished weight, drinking milk is the single largest product at about 21.9 million tonnes, followed by other fresh products such as cream at 15.4 million tonnes and cheese at 10.8 million tonnes. Whey, milk powder, butter and other manufactured goods make up the rest. But weight can mislead, because it takes far more raw milk to make a tonne of cheese or butter than a tonne of drinking milk, which is why the next chart looks at the milk going in rather than the product coming out.

Why cheese and butter rule the European milk market

When you measure by the amount of raw milk consumed rather than the weight of the finished product, cheese and butter dominate the European dairy sector completely. Of the 150.8 million tonnes of whole milk processed by EU dairies in 2024, cheese absorbed about 59.9 million tonnes and butter and related yellow fats about 44.2 million tonnes. Together, the two products accounted for roughly 69 percent of all the whole milk available to dairies. The donut below shows how the whole milk supply is divided.

Cheese and butter take most: together they use close to 69 percent of the whole milk that reaches EU dairies.

This is why cheese in particular sits at the heart of the European milk market. It is the highest-value bulk use of milk, it stores and travels well, and it carries centuries of regional identity. The EU made about 10.8 million tonnes of cheese in 2024, and production is led by a familiar set of countries. The next chart ranks the biggest cheese makers.

Germany makes the most: about 2.4 million tonnes of cheese, roughly 23 percent of the EU total, ahead of France and Italy.

Germany is the largest cheese producer at about 2.4 million tonnes, around 23 percent of the EU total, followed by France at about 1.9 million tonnes and Italy at about 1.4 million tonnes. Poland and the Netherlands round out the top five. Germany dominance is not limited to cheese, either. It also led the EU in 2024 in drinking milk at about 18.8 percent of output, in acidified products such as yogurt at about 27.1 percent, and in butter at about 20.6 percent, making it the single most important node in the European dairy system. Butter is the other pillar, and here Ireland punches well above its weight, accounting for around 15 percent of EU butter production from its grass-fed herds.

Fewer cows, more milk: the productivity story

One of the defining trends of the European milk market is that output has risen even as the number of cows has fallen. The EU dairy herd dropped below 20 million cows for the first time, standing at about 19.7 million at the start of 2024, and it continues to shrink. Rising productivity has more than made up the difference. The average EU cow produced about 8,120 kg of milk in 2024, up from around 7,800 kg only a year or two earlier, and yields are still climbing.

Those averages hide enormous variation between countries, driven by breed, feeding systems, herd structure and farm scale. The chart below shows the gap between the most and least productive national herds.

A three-fold gap: Estonian cows yield about 11,353 kg each while Romanian cows average around 3,540 kg.

Estonia and Denmark top the table at about 11,353 kg and 10,483 kg per cow, while Romania and Bulgaria sit at the bottom near 3,540 kg and 3,735 kg. Among the big producers, Dutch and German cows yield above the EU average, while French and Italian cows sit slightly below it. The same pattern shows up in farm structure. In France, more than 92 percent of dairy farms have at least 30 cows, and the Netherlands and Germany are similarly consolidated, whereas in Poland the figure is closer to 11 percent, reflecting a landscape still dominated by small farms. As margins tighten, it is these smaller, less efficient farms that tend to close first.

What do European farmers get paid for milk?

Milk prices in Europe have been on a rollercoaster. After sitting in the mid-30s of euros per 100 kg through much of 2020 and early 2021, prices climbed sharply through 2021 and 2022 as energy, feed and fertiliser costs surged and demand held firm. By the end of 2022 the EU average had spiked above 58 euros per 100 kg, an extraordinary level by historical standards. Prices then fell back through 2023 before edging up again. The chart tracks the swing across selected months.

Spike, then settle: the EU average leapt above 58 euros per 100 kg in late 2022 before easing back toward the mid-40s.

Across 2024 as a whole, the average price paid to EU farmers rose about 2.9 percent, recovering after a fall of roughly 5 percent in 2023. The national picture was mixed: prices rose strongly in Ireland, up about 16 percent, and gained in the Netherlands and Germany, but fell in Spain by nearly 9 percent. Even after the correction, the EU farmgate price in early 2024, near 46 euros per 100 kg, remained the highest among the major exporting regions, running well above the levels paid in New Zealand and the United States. High prices support farm incomes but also make European dairy less competitive on world markets, a tension that runs through the whole sector.

The Mediterranean world of sheep, goat and buffalo milk

Although cows supply about 96 percent of EU milk, the remaining sliver matters enormously in specific regions and products. Milk from ewes, goats and buffaloes is concentrated in the Mediterranean, where it underpins iconic foods such as Greek feta, Spanish manchego, French goat cheeses and Italian buffalo mozzarella. The chart shows where this non-cow milk comes from.

A Mediterranean speciality: Spain, Greece, France and Italy account for the bulk of Europe non-cow milk.

Spain produced about 1.1 million tonnes of ewe and goat milk in 2024, with Greece at 0.9 million, France at 0.8 million and Italy at 0.7 million tonnes, the last including almost all of the EU buffalo milk used for mozzarella. In some places this is not a niche at all: in Greece, a clear majority of the milk delivered to dairies, about 58 percent, comes from sheep and goats rather than cows, and in Cyprus the share is around a fifth. France is the EU largest goat-milk producer, while Greece leads in ewe milk. These specialist dairy traditions give the European milk market a diversity that few other regions can match.

How much milk do Europeans consume?

On the demand side, drinking-milk consumption in the EU averaged about 53 kg per person in 2021, though this masks wide differences between countries and has been slowly declining for years as tastes shift toward other products. The Netherlands, despite being a dairy powerhouse, consumes closer to 36 kg of drinking milk per capita, with much of its output going into cheese and exports instead. Even Europe healthy per-capita figures are dwarfed globally: consumption per person in India, for instance, is more than three times the EU average.

The long, slow decline of plain liquid milk is one of the clearest demand-side trends in the European market. Younger consumers in particular drink less fresh milk than previous generations, and the rapid growth of plant-based alternatives made from oats, soya, almonds and other crops has taken a visible slice of the chilled shelf, especially in northern and western Europe. Dairy processors have responded by leaning harder into products where demand is firmer, cheese, yogurt, cream, protein drinks and premium or regional specialities, rather than fighting to defend commodity liquid milk.

Where European demand is clearly growing is in value-added and ethical categories. Organic dairy has gained ground across much of the continent, with Germany, France, Denmark and Austria among the leaders. In Germany, surveys suggest around 45 percent of consumers buy organic dairy often or always. Yogurt and other acidified products, protein-enriched drinks and specialty cheeses are also expanding, even as plain liquid milk slowly loses ground. For a closer look at one of these categories, see our data on yogurt and the leading ice cream brands, another major outlet for European milk.

Europe as the world leading dairy exporter

The European Union is not just a huge producer, it is the largest dairy exporter in the world. Because the EU produces far more cheese, butter and milk powder than its own population consumes, a substantial share of output is sold abroad, particularly to Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The bloc is the top global exporter of cheese by a wide margin, and a leading supplier of butter, whey and skimmed milk powder. Alongside New Zealand and the United States, the EU forms part of a small group that controls the bulk of world dairy trade.

This export orientation is a double-edged sword. It gives European processors access to fast-growing markets and helps absorb the milk that domestic demand cannot, but it also exposes farmers to global price swings and currency movements. When Chinese import demand softens or the euro strengthens, the effects are felt on European farms within months. The EU trade position is examined in more detail in our overview of the global dairy industry, and the sector sits within the broader farm economy tracked in our agriculture statistics.

What is next for the European milk market?

The European milk market enters the second half of the decade under real pressure. The dairy herd is shrinking, farmer margins are squeezed between volatile milk prices and stubbornly high input costs, and a wave of environmental regulation is reshaping the sector. Plans in the Netherlands and Ireland to cut nitrogen emissions are expected to weigh on cow numbers for years, and climate policy more broadly is pushing farms toward lower emissions and different practices.

On top of this sits a structural problem: generational renewal. Many dairy farms are run by ageing farmers, and younger people are often reluctant to take on the heavy workload and thin profits of milk production. The result is a steady stream of farm closures and consolidation, with larger, more efficient operations absorbing the milk that smaller farms no longer produce. The USDA expects EU milk deliveries to slip slightly in 2025, with declines in France and the Netherlands, stagnation in Germany, Belgium and Poland, and only Ireland expected to grow.

Sustainability sits at the centre of the debate about the sectors future. Dairy is a significant source of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly methane from cattle, and it uses large amounts of land, water and feed. European policymakers, retailers and processors are all pushing for lower-emission milk, whether through feed additives, herd management, manure handling or renewable energy on farms. The Common Agricultural Policy continues to channel substantial support and green incentives toward the sector, but farmers increasingly have to balance productivity against tightening environmental and animal-welfare expectations, and against the cost of meeting them.

None of this means the European milk market is in retreat. Output remains near record highs, productivity keeps rising, cheese and butter demand is resilient, and export markets continue to grow. But the era of easy post-quota expansion is over. The next phase will be defined less by producing more milk and more by producing it efficiently, sustainably and profitably from a smaller, more concentrated base of farms and cows.

The European milk market in numbers

A handful of figures capture the shape of Europe milk market. The EU makes about 162 million tonnes of milk a year, Germany leads production, cheese and butter dominate the output, cows are fewer but far more productive, and prices remain high and volatile. It is a mature, concentrated and globally important industry.

These numbers matter because dairy is a staple food, a major employer in rural Europe, and one of the blocs biggest agricultural exports. Shifts in German processing, Dutch and Irish environmental policy, or global import demand ripple through farms, shops and trade balances across the continent and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions: Europe Milk Market