The price of milk has recovered only slightly: it has fallen by more than a quarter over the past year

The first signs of a modest recovery appeared on the Lithuanian dairy market in August – the purchase price of raw milk and the volume purchased both rose compared with July. However, the year-on-year picture remains considerably bleaker for milk producers: the price paid for milk is more than a quarter lower than a year ago, whilst the number of farms selling milk has fallen by nearly one and a half thousand over the past year.

According to data from the Milk Accounting Information System (PAIS) managed by the State Enterprise Agricultural Data Centre, in August 2026, the average purchase price of raw natural-fat milk in Lithuania stood at 360.85 euros per tonne excluding VAT. The average fat content of the milk purchased was 4.14 per cent, whilst the protein content was 3.41 per cent.

Compared with July, the average purchase price for natural milk rose by 2 per cent, or €7.07 per tonne. However, this monthly increase has not yet altered the overall annual picture. In August 2025, the average price paid per tonne of milk was 490.52 euros, meaning the price has fallen by 26.4 per cent over the year. In other words, the difference amounts to almost 130 euros for every tonne of milk sold.

The average reference price for milk in August stood at 291.03 euros per tonne. It rose by just 0.5 per cent over the month, whilst compared with August last year it was 27.6 per cent lower.

Against the backdrop of falling prices, improving milk quality indicators stand out. The average fat content in August was 4.14 per cent, 0.05 percentage points higher than a year ago. The average protein content rose from 3.36 per cent to 3.41 per cent over the same period. The improved milk composition indicators had a positive impact on the recalculated volume of milk based on the reference indicators – which stood at 162.8 thousand tonnes.

A total of €47.4 million was paid to the country’s producers for milk purchased in August. This is 3.3 per cent more than in July, but as much as 28.2 per cent less than in August 2025. This significant year-on-year gap was mainly due to the considerably lower level of milk purchase prices.

As before, the largest milk suppliers receive a significantly higher price. Farms selling 40 tonnes or more of raw milk per month were paid an average of 402.90 EUR/t (excluding VAT) for natural milk in August. In July, this price stood at 392.91 euros per tonne, representing a monthly increase of around 2.5 per cent. However, even the price received by large-scale farms was 24.9 per cent lower than a year ago.

This segment continues to account for a particularly large share of the Lithuanian milk market. Farms selling at least 40 tonnes of milk per month supplied 67.42 per cent of all raw milk purchased nationwide in August. This means that more than two-thirds of milk is already being purchased from these major suppliers.

In total, Lithuanian milk purchasing companies purchased 131.33 thousand tonnes of raw milk in August. Compared with July, the volume increased by 1.3 per cent, but was 2.4 per cent lower than a year ago.

Even more striking changes can be seen when looking at the number of farms selling milk. In August, 7,159 producers sold milk to purchasers – 1.5 per cent fewer than in July and as many as 17.1 per cent fewer than a year ago. Over the course of a year, 1,478 farms have dropped out of the milk seller statistics.

Thus, a slight monthly lull was recorded in the Lithuanian milk market in August: both purchase prices and milk volumes rose slightly, whilst milk quality indicators also improved. However, a year-on-year comparison reveals a considerably more complex situation – milk prices remain more than a quarter lower, the amount paid to producers has fallen even further, and the number of farms selling milk continues to decline rapidly.