the price of milk will not fall in 2024

The Livestock Institute (Idele) has just published its quantified outlook for the year 2024 and the trend should remain stable. It should be remembered that in 2023, milk prices increased by 5%. But this increase did not make it possible to compensate for the sharp decline in breeders’ income. This 5% increase brought the average ton of milk (1,000 liters) to 460 euros. Which is still insufficient to allow breeders to cover their costs.

Discrepancies appeared depending on the size of the farms and negotiations with manufacturers. The size of a dairy farm with, in parallel, cereals allows for a better balance of income than a dairy farm alone. Production costs have also increased for everyone and this occurred at the time of the reduction in aid from the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The appellations made it possible to limit the damage

We see, for example, that farms which have benefited from the Protected Designation of Origin (AOP) label, particularly in Franche-Comté and Savoie, have held up better, even if the room for maneuver remains narrow. And then, it’s the opposite of the fashion phenomenon of recent years: the collection of organic milk has fallen between 4.5 and 5%. The Interprofession has identified 200 farms which have stopped using organic milk, either to return to conventional milk production, or by pure and simple transfer of activity.

The context will remain difficult this year, but some sources of hope remain, such as the decline in livestock numbers which will slow down compared to the 80,000 head of cattle lost in 2022. The inter-professional association expects an increase in milk collection with a stabilization of prices, thanks in particular to the sharp drop in energy prices which, automatically, will weigh less on the costs of French farmers and breeders.