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Agriculture: Eurostat: Romania has the least productive milk yield in the EU
Romanian cattle rank the lowest in productivity per-cow head among European Union countries in 2021 (3,362 kilograms), says a new data published by Eurostat this month.
A lot of factors come into consideration for a cow’s milk yield, including the herd structure, nutrition, hygiene, and more.
For comparison, Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbor, places the second lowest with 3,628 kg per cow. Denmark and Estonia, on the other hand, score the highest national average with 10,097 kg and 10,020 kg, respectively.
The Eurostat data also shows that animals other than cows have contributed more to milk production in some countries, like Spain which produced over 1 million tons of goat and ewe milk, followed by Greece and France in the ballpark of 900,000 to 800,000 tons.
Germany leads the number of dairies collecting EU’s cows’ milk with 21.8%, one-fifth of the 146,5 million tonnes total, followed by France (16.6%) and the Netherlands (9.3%).
Over 70% of European milk is utilized by butter, cheese, and other ‘yellow-product’ factories.
Pricewise, the average price of milk in the EU witnessed a consistent and continuous sharp rise since the first quarter of 2021. Throughout the end of the year, it skyrocketed to its all-time highest since the 20% strong rebound in 2017 – Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands, and Germany are the most affected EU countries with average rises between 10.1% to 16.4%.
Analysts predict that the price of one kilogram of cheese in Romania will reach RON 100 in retail by the end of the year, according to the president of the Romanian Employers' Association of the Dairy Industry (APRIL), Dorin Cojocaru, quoted by Ziarul Financiar.
eMM.ro reported in early September that the average purchase price of milk is only RON 1.65 per litre in the Maramure? region, pushing the farmers on the brink of economic collapse due to the gap between production costs and selling prices.