In Asia, milk output rose to 379 million tonnes1 in 2020, up 2.

6 percent year-on-year, principally

driven by increases
mainly in India, China, Pakistan and Turkey. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Japan too registered
moderate production
expansions.
In India, milk output reached 195 million tonnes in 2020, up 2.0 percent from 2019, underpinned by
the continued rise
in dairy cattle numbers and improved feed and fodder availability on favourable monsoon rains (June
to September).
The fast mobilisation of the village cooperatives’ network at the early phase of the pandemic and
channelling milk into
drying plants further facilitated milk output growth. In China, the increased output of large-scale dairy
farms and their
operational and production efficiency improvements underpinned the over 7 percent milk output
growth. In Pakistan,
milk output increased by 3.2 percent, mainly due to a rise in cattle numbers, partially offset by poor
milk collections
during the pandemic’s early phase. Besides herd numbers, farm efficiency improvements and solid
import demand
helped Turkey to sustain milk production growth. In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two of the largest
milk producers in
Central Asia, the output increase reflected modernising farms with rising dairy cattle, although
smallholders remain