Belgian dairy farms respond to global market: 6,000 tonnes more mozzarella produced in 2022

In 2022, Belgian dairy farms produced about 9% or 6,000 tonnes more mozzarella than in 2021. This is what emerged from the new results of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office. Mozzarella is getting ahead of classic Gouda, of which 17% or about 2,000 tonnes less was produced. In total Belgian dairy production, drinking milk, milk drinks and fresh dairy products remain the leading category in production volumes.

Compared to 2021 also, goat's cheese production has recovered with a 33% increase, while condensed milk and whey fell by 26%. Compared to the last five years (2017-2021), there is an increase for skimmed milk powder (24%), farm butter (15%) and fresh dairy products (7%) and a decrease for drinking milk (-4%).

Overall cheese production stagnates

In 2022, some 109,500 tonnes of cheese were produced in Belgium, including 96,500 tonnes of natural cheese. During the past year, total cheese production remained at the same level, however there was a noticeable change in the types of cheese produced. The production of Gouda has decreased by 7%. This decrease is offset by a sharp increase in the production of mozzarella of 9%. With this, the dairy sector is responding to global market demand. Fresh cheese and goat's cheese production continue to increase by 45% and 9% respectively compared to the last 5 years. The production share of goat's cheese remains rather limited. In order to produce 9,800 tonnes of goat's cheese, 75 million litres of goat's milk were collected in Belgium and abroad. The share of Belgium's own goat's milk is limited to 46%.

Drinking milk remains the main product group

Drinking milk, milk drinks and fresh dairy products are the most important products in the Belgian dairy industry expressed in volume of finished product. In 2022, the total production of drinking milk (chocolate milk and milk with added vitamins included) amounted to 818 million litres.

As for drinking milk, semi-skimmed milk is produced the most, although its production has decreased by 9% compared to the last 5 years. The increase in buttermilk of 16% is particularly striking. As for milk drinks, the production of chocolate milk increased by 10%, whereas the production of milk with added vitamins fell by 50%.

Production of desserts rises remarkably

Fresh dairy products such as yoghurt, fermented milk drinks, cream and desserts are the second largest category in the Belgian dairy production with a total production volume of 683 million litres. Here, too, there is a sustained growth of 7% compared to the previous five years.

Notable increases can be observed in the production of desserts, yoghurt and cream, of 15%, 8% and 8%, respectively. The increase in production of fermented milk remains limited to 3%.

The production of farm butter continues to increase

In 2022, the production of farm butter amounts to 71,500 tonnes. This is an overall increase of 15% compared to the last 5 years.

More condensed milk and milk powder, less ice cream

In the remaining categories, the production of consumer ice cream is declining. While in 2017, 71,000 litres of ice cream were still produced, in 2022, only 63,000 litres were produced, i.e. a decrease of 6% over the average productions of the period 2017-2021.

In milk powder production there is an increase of 4%, mainly due to the higher production of skimmed milk powder by 27% in 2022. Unskimmed milk powder decreased by 33% in 2022. The other milk powders experienced an increase of 4% in 2022. They include high-quality raw materials for the food industry such as baby food and sports food.

Finally, for condensed milk and whey there is an average increase of 17%, despite a striking decrease of no less than 26% in 2022.