The Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Forestry revealed that the production of milk in the Azores grew 3.4% during the first half of 2018, compared to the same period of last year.
 
According to data presented to industry partners, an additional 11.2 million litres of milk were produced between January and June 2018 in comparison with the same period of last year.
 
To date, the Region has already produced almost 340 million litres of milk.
 
These positive data do not yet reflect the effects of the prolonged drought affecting the dairy sector of several islands. This situation has led the Regional Government to take measures, namely the support for the important of food and the allocation of financial aid to mitigate the drop in the production of forage maize and horticultural products.
 
With regard to the average milk price in the Azores registered in June this year, compared to the same month of 2017, there was a growth of 4%, increasing from 27.1 cents per litre to 29.1 cents.
 
In Mainland Portugal, the average milk price paid to producer in the period under analysis increased by 5.6% and while there was a decrease of 2.5% in the European Union.