Milk production in Mallorca has decreased by 3 million liters in four years

PalmIn 2024, Mallorca produced 9,708,923 liters of milk, almost three million liters less than in 2020, the year of the pandemic, when the figure exceeded 12.6 million liters. In just four years, production has fallen so sharply due to "the crisis in the dairy industries, mainly inAgama", as explained by the Director General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández.

Along the same lines, he explains that in 2024 there was "the sharpest drop in dairy contracts" that Agama signed with milk producers in Mallorca. Agama reduced milk deliveries to the plant by 15%, and according to Fernández, the government fined the company for this reduction in contracts.

Previously, the company had already reduced the volume of milk deliveries in its contracts. Starting in 2016, Agama's milk sales had already begun to decline due to the gradual entry of competing brands, resulting in a growing surplus that the company was unable to sell. Agama reduced its milk purchases from local producers by 10%. Months later, the situation remained the same, and the company then reduced its milk purchases from farmers by 40%. As the executives argued at the time, "the company had accumulated losses of nearly six million euros and had a surplus of almost 4.5 million liters of milk that had no outlet in the Balearic Islands." In recent years, the company's sales have continued to decline, and in 2025 the decrease is 20% compared to previous years, according to figures from Damm. This is mainly due "to the strong price pressure exerted by store brands and milk brands from outside the islands that dominate supermarket shelves," as sources from the brewing company explained to ARA Baleares. Therefore, with the aim of "guaranteeing the viability and competitiveness of the business, Agama finds it necessary to reduce its purchases of raw milk from local farms," they added. But no further reduction will be made because in 2026, The company will stop buying milk. to the three dairy farms that are still supplying milk at this point. Currently, the future of the dairy company is still uncertain, but, as ARA Baleares reported, the Balearic Government has set the December 31 this year as the deadline to find a solution.

On the other hand, the general manager explains that the drop in milk production is concentrated in the sector of milk sales to primary operators (industries). However, he points out that milk production by companies that sell directly increased by 350,000 liters in 2024 compared to 2023. "Until 2023, only Quesos Burguera did this, but then other cheese-producing companies joined in, which also counts as direct sales," he argues.

Menorca, unlike Mallorca

Menorca "ended 2024 having recovered from the drop in production that occurred during the pandemic," Fernández points out. In this case, milk deliveries to industries increased from 44.2 million liters in 2023 to 47.37 million in 2024. The government expects this figure to rise to 50 million liters by 2025. "But perhaps it will grow less," Fernández acknowledges. In the case of Ibiza, there are two farms that produce milk, mainly for ice cream and yogurt, and production consistently hovers around 191,000 liters.