The UK dairy sector has published a coordinated plan to speed up environmental progress by 2030, with approximately £2.4 billion in investment expected to be needed to deliver the transition.
A new Dairy Roadmap report, Sustainable Dairy Pathways: The Path to 2030, defines priorities for farmers, processors, policymakers and other supply-chain stakeholders. Its aim is to improve environmental performance while safeguarding food production and strengthening rural economies.
Commissioned by The Dairy Roadmap and prepared by Scotland’s Rural College, the report covers actions across agriculture, dairy processing, finance, infrastructure, policy and data management.
It focuses on four key priorities: expanding the use of proven environmental practices, funding infrastructure and technology, planning for new innovations, and improving access to policy guidance, finance, data and technical advice.
According to the report, additional funding will be required for areas such as slurry storage and management, as well as for broader support to enable dairy businesses to implement environmental improvements at scale.
It also urges stronger cooperation across the dairy supply chain to improve access to investment, develop skills and knowledge sharing, and establish more consistent methods for collecting and using data.
For dairy processors and food manufacturers, the roadmap points to further potential to lower energy consumption, reduce water use and minimise waste.
The industry has already made progress across a range of environmental indicators. National inventory figures indicate that on-farm emissions per litre of milk have declined by approximately 22% since 1990, while methane emissions have fallen by almost 14%.
Figures referenced in the report show that industry greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 9% during the last five years. Dairy processors have also cut energy intensity by more than 30%, reduced water consumption per kilogram of milk by over 50%, and lowered the proportion of waste sent to landfill from 24% to below 2%.
The roadmap states that the sector’s next phase of progress will rely on wider implementation of measures that have already demonstrated environmental value.
It further identifies climate and disease resilience as important priorities, following periods of extreme heat and disruption associated with Bluetongue.
The UK produces approximately 15 billion litres of milk each year. Dairy farming provides more than 50,000 on-farm jobs, while the processing sector supports an additional 22,500 roles.
The report states that 99.6% of UK households purchased dairy products over the past year.
The Dairy Roadmap concludes that continued progress will require farmers, processors, government, lenders and other industry stakeholders to work jointly to overcome investment barriers and increase the uptake of environmental measures.
