Milk production declines in March

ANKARA

Turkey’s cow milk production reached 838,444 tons in March, official figures showed on May 13.

Data by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed that the amount of cow milk collected by the integrated dairies dropped by 8.6 percent year-on-year in March.

During the month, drinking milk production also fell 18.5 percent to nearly 132,000 tons, the official data revealed.

The country produced over 58,000 tons of cheese - from cow milk - in March, down 10.2 percent on an annual basis.

TÜİK added that cheese production from sheep, goat, buffalo and mixed milk had increased by 3,125 tons -- or 0.1 percent - when compared to the same month of the previous year.

Yoghurt production decreased 1.5 percent to stand at roughly 99,000 tons and production of ayran - a drink made of yoghurt - fell by 2.3 percent to 62,148 tons year-on-year in March.

The country also produced 11,858 tons of milk powder, some 7,048 tons of butter, and nearly 3,876 tons of cream last year.

TÜİK said that the average fat ratio in cow’s milk collected during the month by integrated dairies was 3.5 percent, while the average rate of protein was 3.1 percent.

Last year, over 10 million tons of cow milk were collected in Turkey while nearly 1.7 million tons of production of drinking milk was recorded.

Egg production rose

TÜİK also reported that the country’s hen egg production rose by 2.6 percent to reach 1.7 billion units year-on-year.

Meanwhile, chicken meat production dropped 5.7 percent to 175,327 tons in March, compared with the same month in 2018.

TÜİK said turkey meat production also decreased by 18.9 percent to 4,341 tons in March, compared with the same month last year.

During the third month of 2019, 100 million chickens and 421,000 turkeys were slaughtered, down 4.6 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis.

Last year, the country produced 2.16 million tons of chicken meat, 69,500 tons of turkey meat, and 19.6 billion hen eggs.