Whilst cows’ milk dominates the market for the milk used by dairies, there are parts of the EU where milk from other animals is collected and processed in relatively large quantities. Spain produced in 2017 1.0 million tonnes of milk from ewes and goats, with Greece and France both producing 0.8 million tonnes. Italy also produced 0.7 million tonnes of milk from animals other than cows and this included almost all of the EU’s production of milk from buffalos as revealed by the Milk and milk product statistics, recently published by Eurostat.
Whereas milk collected from these other animals was dwarfed by that from cows in most of these countries, there were some exceptions. A majority (57.1 %) of the milk delivered to dairies in Greece came from ewes and goats in 2017 (see Figure 4). Between one fifth and one quarter (22.5 %) of milk delivered to dairies in Cyprus also came from ewes and goats. In Spain, 12%, and in Bulgaria 8.2%.
Source: Eurostat (apro_mk_pobta)
