“The long run prospects for dairy globally are encouraging increased investment in the sector and are a cause for industry confidence” according to The World Dairy Situation 2013 report recently published by the International Dairy Federation (IDF). In 2012, world milk production increased 2.2 percent from the prior year, and world output increased for every kind of dairy product. Global per capita availability of milk in 2012 was on average 109.4 kilograms, up 1 percent from 2011.
All this dairy growth resulted in world dairy trade reaching 61.9 million metric tons (mmt) in 2012, an increase of 8 percent compared to 2011. This rate of dairy trade growth was double the average of 4 percent between 2000 and 2011. IDF notes this “reflects the increasing geographical imbalance between production and consumption of dairy in the world.”
Cow’s milk represented about 83 percent (637 mmt) of the total world farm milk production of 770 mmt in 2012, with the rest coming from buffalo (101 mmt, or 13 percent of the total), goats (2.4 percent), sheep (1.3 percent) and camel (0.4 percent). The IDF report notes that many regions of the world suffered from poor climate conditions during parts of 2012 and into the first half of 2013. This limited world farm milk production and was a key factor to the increase in farm milk prices globally during this time.
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