In 2018, the amount of milk produced by Croatia's family-run dairy farms dropped 10.8 percent year-on-year. At the same time, the portion of milk they produced and delivered to dairies fell by 16.4 percent, state statistics bureau said on Tuesday.

Last year, milk production at private family farms totalled 426,600 tonnes, 52,000 less than the year before. Of that amount, 245,700 tonnes were delivered to dairies, 48,000 tonnes less than in 2017.

The decrease in the production of milk also influenced the usage of milk by purpose. The usage of fresh milk in households increased by 2.1% to 38,100 tonnes.

The direct sales of milk decreased by 0.2% to 21,600 tonnes, while the quantity of milk used for feedingstuffs decreased by 1.6% to 70,200 tonnes.

The quantity of milk processed at farms into dairy products decreased by 5.4% to 48,300 tonnes, which also affected a decrease in the production of most dairy products.

Despite the decrease in the total production of dairy products, the production of other types of cheese increased by 2.6% compared to the previous year, to 844 tonnes.

As for other products in 2018, the quantity of cream produced decreased by 6% to 953 tonnes, of butter by 8.3% to 33 tonnes, of fresh cheese by 10.8% to 3,823 tonnes and of other products by 10.1% to 295 tonnes.