Ireland's milk output up by 27.2% last year

Ireland's milk output last year increased by 27.2 percent or 443.7 million euros (603 million U.S. dollars), according to official figures released on Wednesday.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicated that operating surplus in agriculture in 2013 showed an annual increase of 1.5 percent.
This follows a decrease of 9.2 percent in 2012. The rise in operating surplus in 2013 can be mostly attributed to an increase of 27.2 percent in the value of milk output, the CSO said.
There are more than 17,000 dairy farms in Ireland, producing 5 billion litres of milk per year.
Milk production in Ireland is projected to increase by 50 percent by the year 2020, according to plans contained within the Food Harvest 2020 report.
Some 495 million litres of milk are consumed as liquid milk in Ireland, with per-capita consumption of liquid milk in Ireland being the third highest in the European Union.