The world will be consuming an extra 304 million tonnes of milk (295 billion litres) per year by 2030 as global population increases, according to a new report.
Between now and 2030, worldwide demand growth for milk and milk products will heavily increase due to population growth, growing prosperity and worldwide dairy investment.
Today, about 876 million tonnes of milk is produced worldwide, with Oceania, EU and India among the leading producers.
But according to the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) Dairy Research Network, more milk will be needed on the market.
The dynamics of structural changes of dairy farms internationally will continue and farms will intensify their farming systems, according to IFCN Managing Director, Dr Torsten Hemme.
Dr Hemme said that by 2030, forecasts show an increase in milk production and demand in total by 35%.
Fewer, but larger farms
IFCN have created this projection using consumption and population trends. In order to satisfy this growing demand, the global dairy herd is expected to increase by 12%, or 417 million more dairy animals, with milk yields improving to fill the gap.
Milk production is expected to increase across the globe, but south Asia is expected to see the largest rise (up 64%). The increase in Western Europe is expected to be a more modest 14%.
Forecasts show that there will be fewer farms but larger farm sizes in 2030. In the next 13 years, 14 million dairy farms will close down to a world total of 104 million.
This indicates the ongoing consolidation process as fewer farms will produce a greater amount of milk. Only in Africa will a significant number of new dairy farms emerge (+9.8%), mainly driven by the population growth accompanied by new smallholder farmers.
At the global level average farm size will expand to 4 head / farm, which corresponds to a global increase of 29% in average farm sizes.
Source: Farming UK