Austrian dairy industry sees record export levels in 2014

The Austrian dairy industry exported a record of nearly 1.26 billion U.S. dollars of milk and milk products in 2014, a 5.4 percent increase over 2013.
"This demonstrates the high performance of the domestic dairy industry," President of the Austrian Dairy Association (VOeM) Helmut Petschar said of the Statistics Austria-released figures on Tuesday.
The most important product for export in 2014 was cheese, the 125,000 tonnes (a 6.9 percent increase) shipped overseas worth record revenue of 557 million dollars (up 9.6 percent).
The VOeM said the export prices were also 2.7 percent higher year-on-year, showing the Austrian dairy companies had successfully built a market based around exporting quality products.
Other main exports were liquid milk products, worth 387 million dollars, and yogurt and sour milk products, amounting to 71 million dollars.
The figures showed Austria also imported more dairy products in 2014, particularly butter of which it imported 15,600 tonnes, and exported only 2,150 tonnes.
Also of note however is that Austria has once again exceeded the EU milk production quota, that is due to expire in March, for which it can expect to pay a record fine of over 47 million dollars.