Romania’s raw milk imports up close to 10 pct in January-February 2017

Romania’s raw milk imports went up close to 10 percent in January-February, to 27,870 tonnes, while the milk collected from the processing units went up by 0.3 percent, while the milk production went up by 6.4 percent up to 50,063 tonnes, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Between January 1- February 28, compared with the same period of 2016, increases were recorded in the butter production by 328 tonnes ( 18.8 percent) up to 2,070 tonnes, sour milk (yoghurt, buttermilk and other similar dairies) by 717 tonnes (2.1 percent) amounting to 34,738 tonnes, but also for cheese products by 145 tonnes to 12,964 tonnes. However the cream production went down in the mentioned period by 1,425 tonnes up to 10,599 tonnes.

The INS data show that the imported raw milk went up by 2,484 tonnes ( 9.8 percent) in the first two months of 2017.

In February, the cow milk quantity collected by agricultural exploitations and the collection centers by the processing units went down by 2.4 percent (1,738 tonnes) compared with January 2017 and by 0.7 percent (505 tonnes) compared with February 2016.

In February, decreases were recorded in milk production by 2,736 tonnes, sour milk by 655 tonnes, cream by 75 tonnes, butter by 12 tonnes, but also the cheese production went up by 485 tonnes compared with January. The imported raw milk went down in February compared with January by 1,292 tonnes.

According to the INS, the cream production went down by 654 tonnes compared with February 2016, the milk went down by 322 tonnes and the cheese production went down by 30 tonnes.