Experts predict best prices for dairy farms in Spain this year

The approximately 5,200 dairy farms in Galicia can face the coming months with confidence regarding prices. Everything suggests they will rise, at least in the short term.

This is the scenario pointed out by experts in the sector such as Francisco Sineiro and Jorge Santiso, former professors fr om the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Santiago de Compostela and researchers at Ecoagrasoc, in the report "The dairy sector in Spain: Situation 2024 and perspectives 2025," recently published.

Convergence with the EU Average

The experts forecast an "improvement in prices" for livestock farmers that will cause the national average (49.5 cents per liter in deliveries in January before adding VAT) to converge with that of the European Union, which is five to six cents higher. It should be considered that in Galicia this gap is greater, as the region's farms are the lowest paid on the Peninsula with an average of 47.3 euros.

Fewer Farms and Cows

This improvement will occur in a context wh ere a slight increase in milk production is expected in Spain, around 1%. This growth is limited by a decline in census—with fewer cows and heifers than a year ago—and the constant reduction in the number of farms, not only due to the closure of smaller ones. The report highlights that "in 2023, a third of the closures occurred in operations with more than 200 tons" of production per year.