December 15, 2011

Latvia's milk exports to Lithuania up 49% on-year

Janis Solks, Latvian Central Union of Dairies (LPCS) board chairman said on Wednesday (Dec 14) that Latvia's amount of milk exported to Lithuania rose 49% this year.

He said that on average 704 tonnes of milk had been taken to Lithuania daily in October 2011.

"If in 2010 the average amount of daily exports was 444 tonnes of milk, this year, in October in particular, the daily exports reached 704 tonnes," Solks said, adding that the milk output in Latvia in October was 58,500 tonnes with 1,888 tonnes processed daily.

"The LPCS sees that the amount processed by the Latvian dairies has not changed and has even dropped by a couple percent but the amount of milk exported to Lithuania has increased by 49%. In other words, dairy farming is growing, the amount sent to the Latvian dairies stays on the same level but exports are growing - in fact it is Lithuania that largely benefits from the support to modernisation of farms," the association chairman said.

At the beginning of this year the LPCS head already said that Latvia was exporting 450 tonnes of raw milk to Lithuania daily, thus causing a loss of LVL4 million (US$7.45 million) to the national budget.

The Latvian Central Union of Dairies has as its members 16 dairy companies which together account for about 90% of milk processed in Latvia.