Less right and "Made in Albania" butter on the market. Milk production follows the decline of livestock

The amount of milk collected last year decreased by 8% compared to 2022, INSTAT reported in a survey of milk collection and processing companies in the country.

Milk production is the result of the decrease in the number of cattle, which last year were 11% less than in 2022 for each category.

In 2023, the total amount of milk collected is about 101 thousand tons, marking a decrease of 8.0%, compared to 2022.

During this period, the amount of cow's milk collected is about 80 thousand tons, decreasing by about 7.6%, compared to 2022.

The accumulated amount of sheep's milk, in 2023, is about 13 thousand tons, marking a decrease of about 10.6%, compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the collected amount of milk from goats is about 8 thousand tons, marking a decrease of 8.2%, compared to 2022.

From the total amount of milk collected, about 13 thousand tons was used for the production of milk for human consumption, the rest goes for processing. The structure of milk produced for consumption is dominated by processed whole milk 88.2%, semi-skimmed milk 8.1%, raw milk 3.2% and skimmed milk 0.5%.

The total amount of cheese produced decreased by 7.7%. Meanwhile, goat's milk cheese increased by 0.6%, sheep's milk decreased by 12.9%, while cow's milk decreased by 7.3%. The amount of cheese produced by hardness for 2023 is: soft cheese 49.0%, semi-hard cheese 27.9%, other fresh products 14.4% and hard cheese 8.8%.

The total amount of butter produced for the year 2023 is about 608 tons, where 98.2% is traditional butter and 1.8% is melted butter.

Unlike administrative data, the Survey of milk and its by-products is a statistical survey that is carried out at enterprises that collect and process milk in the territory of the Republic of Albania. The main objective of the annual milk survey is to provide complete information on the amount of collected milk (all types of milk) and its by-products. The data on the collected milk and under the manufactured products, subject of this publication, belong only to the amount used by the industry, which occupies only a part of the total milk production of the agricultural economic units.

According to today's INSTAT data, in 2023 there were 263 thousand cattle in the whole country with an annual decrease of 11.5%

While the number of small items decreased by 11.7 percent. The number of pigs also decreased by 16%. Only poultry and beehives grew by 2.6 and 8.2% each.

According to the data, the number of cattle in 2023 is 263,385 heads. The main category is represented by dairy cows with about 88.24% of the total number of heads.

In 2023, the number of wool is 1,206,206 heads. The main category of wool consists of dairy sheep with about 83.43% of the total number of the herd. The number of animals in 2023 is 640,242 heads. The main category is represented by dairy goats with 79.96% of the total number of heads.

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