Australia's cheese production is expected to rise in 2025

According to a recent USDA Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service in Canberra forecasts that cheese production will increase to 375,000 tonnes in 2025, up 2.7% from the downwardly revised 365,000 tonnes forecast for 2024. If forecasts are met, 2025 cheese production would be the third-highest on record, although still no higher than 2023. The all-time record for cheese production was 413,000 tonnes in 2002, when Australian milk production peaked and was 24% higher than the 2025 forecast. The optimism about cheese production is directly related to the expected modest increase in milk production. Over the past decade, processors have increasingly directed milk towards cheese production, while reducing the production of other dairy products, resulting in a decline in overall milk production. This trend has stopped in 2023, and a slight decline is also expected in 2024, with SMP and butter production growing at the expense of cheese. ...