According to industry association Dairy Australia (DA), only 7.98 billion liters of milk were produced in the first 11 months of the marketing year; this is 669 million liters or 7.7% less than the same period last season. In May of this year, milk supplies fell 13.6% compared with the same month of the previous year.

Rabobank expects production in Australia to decline by at least 8% in 2018-2019 to 8.6 billion pounds; this will be the lowest milk production in the last 20 years.

The reason for the sharp decline in milk volume is the ongoing drought in some parts of Australia, which has led to a noticeable shortage and increase in feed and water prices, as well as slaughter of animals.

Earlier it was reported that Australian farmers are increasingly abandoning dairy farming because of its unprofitability. Judging by the latest official data, in mid-2018 in Australia there were only 5,699 dairy farms and 1.56 million cows. In 1980, the country had 22 thousand dairy farms.

Long periods of dry weather and further increased feed costs have caused dairy farmers in Australia to produce milk at a much lower cost.

This indicates the end of the business for many who simply cannot continue to lose money.