The volume of domestic intake by milk processors and co-ops increased in January this year to an estimated 162.5 million litres, according to new report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday, March 6).

This represented an increase of 14 million litres when compared with the volume recorded last January, but was down by 17.9 million litres when compared with the same month in 2023.

According to Stephanie Kelleher, statistician in the CSO agriculture section, fat content for January 2025 was 4.51% - up slightly from 4.50% in January 2024.

Meanwhile protein content rose from 3.48% to 3.58% in the 12 months to January 2025.

Overall domestic milk intake was estimated at 8.43 billion litres in 2024 - a marginal drop of 30.1 million litres when compared with 2023.

The latest CSO analysis suggests that domestic milk intake "increased substantially" from September to December last year - when compared with the same months in 2023.

But domestic milk intake in the first eight months of 2024 was lower than in January to August 2023.

Additional figures also released by the CSO today show that Ireland lags behind the likes of Germany, France and Italy when it comes to EU milk intake by processors and co-ops.

Meanwhile earlier this week  (Tuesday, March 4) the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index fell marginally after the latest auction.

The auction tends to be viewed as a good barometer of dairy prices and an indicator of supply and demand in the market.

There were a total of 176 bidders in the event which saw 20,977 metric ton (MT) of product sold.

The average selling price was €4,022 per metric ton in the auction, which lasted for more than two hours, during which there were 126 winning bidders.

The GDT Price Index now stands at 1,251 – compared to the previous index figure on February 18 which was 1,257.