The charts below show the world's top three producers for four different dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, milk powder) in 2012.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
The four bar charts compare the world’s top three manufacturers of four dairy categories (milk, cheese, butter, milk powder) in terms of production volume in 2012.
Overall, the European Union was the leading producer for three of the four dairy products, while it ranked third for milk powder. Raw milk had by far the highest production volumes across all listed regions compared to processed dairy goods.
Looking at liquid milk in detail, the EU was the largest producer with 142,970 thousand tonnes, followed closely by India at 127,000 thousand tonnes, with the US a distant third at 90,038 thousand tonnes. For cheese, the EU also took first place with 7,120 thousand tonnes, almost 50% higher than the second-placed US (4,925 thousand tonnes), while Brazil produced far less at just 700 thousand tonnes.
By contrast, India dominated butter production with 7,500 thousand tonnes, nearly four times the EU’s output of 2,040 thousand tonnes; the US again ranked third with only 810 thousand tonnes. For milk powder, China was the top producer at 1,200 thousand tonnes, marginally ahead of New Zealand (1,110 thousand tonnes), while the EU produced 770 thousand tonnes to take third position.