Band 9: The charts below give information about the world's top three producers for four different dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, milk powder) in the year of 2012.

The charts compare the amounts of four dairy products produced by three largest producers in 2012.

What is immediately clear is that the production of milk was on a far larger scale, far exceeding that of other products. Also noticeable is the fact the European Union not only dominated two categories, namely milk and cheese, but was also among the three largest producers of butter and milk powder.

Looking first at milk, the largest producer here was the EU, at roughly 143,000 metric tons, which was followed closely by India at 127,000 metric tons. As the third largest producer, the US produced only 90,000 metric tons, 50,000 metric tons less than the top producer. At a significantly lower level, 7,120 metric tons of cheese were made by the EU, which was ten times the figure for Brazil, the third largest producer. Between these two areas, the US had the second largest output, with 4,925 metric tons of this product.

Moving to butter, India was the largest producer in this category, with 4,500 metric tons, more than double the figure for the EU in the second place. By contrast, the US made only 800 metric tons, a sixth of India’s output. Finally, China and New Zealand were the largest producers of milk powder, with their respective figures being relatively close, at 1,200 and 1,100 metric tons. The EU also made it into the top three, producing 770 metric tons of this product.