Milking it: New figures show Israelis consuming more dairy products and alternatives

Agriculture Ministry publishes new figures ahead of Shavuot and in wake of Knesset Committee okay to expand Dairy Council powers, despite Treasury opposition

The average Israeli consumed around 157 liters (41.5 gallons) of locally produced milk and dairy products last year, according to figures for 2025 published Sunday by the Agriculture Ministry in the run-up to the Shavuot holiday.

The festival, to be celebrated from Thursday evening through Friday, traditionally sees Jews eating dairy products. According to one interpretation of the tradition, dairy is eaten because Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, which introduced the Jewish people to the laws of kosher observance. As the event took place on a Sabbath, the Jews could not start slaughtering animals or koshering utensils, and so ate milk products instead.

The average dairy cow produced 12,600 liters (3,330 gallons) of milk last year, equivalent to 34.6 liters (nine gallons) per day, the ministry said. This was 44 percent more than at the end of 2016.

There were 602 cowsheds in the country last year, down from 620 at the end of 2024.

In a statement, the ministry noted that the purchases of dairy alternatives, such as soy and oat milks, rose fivefold between 2004 and 2025. Last year, 35.3 million liters (9.3 million gallons) were consumed, accounting for 13% of all liquid milk and milk alternatives. Among the milk alternatives, soy and oat milk were the most popular (respectively 41% and 43% of all alternative milks), with almond milk coming third (14%). Just one liter (roughly a quart) of milk is needed to produce a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of yogurt.

Turning to cheeses, the ministry revealed that nine to ten liters (2.4 to 2.6 gallons) of milk were needed to produce a kilogram of hard cheese, and four to five liters (8.8 to 11 gallons) to produce a kilogram of soft cheese, such as cottage, white, or Bulgarian varieties.

Last year, the retail sector sold an average of NIS 216 million ($74 million) of milk and alternative milk products every week. This year, in the week leading up to Shavuot, the figure is expected to reach NIS 353 million ($120 million), with the biggest increases in demand expected for sweet whipping cream, specialty cheeses, salty cheeses, cream cheese, and white cheeses.

As part of a broader plan to lower the cost of living, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tried at the end of 2025 to advance a bill to slash local milk production from the current 1.5 billion liters to 1 billion, cut the price per liter that dairy processors pay to farmers by 15%, and abolish tariffs of up to 40% in a bid to flood the Israeli market with imported dairy products.

In the wake of opposition and protests from farmers, as well as industrial action that left supermarkets without raw milk for a day, the proposal was removed from the Economic Arrangements Bill accompanying the 2026 budget.

Last week, the Knesset’s Economics Committee, led by Likud MK David Bitan, overruled objections from the Finance Ministry and agreed to expand the powers of the Dairy Council rather than to reform the market to increase competition.

The Dairy Council is responsible for planning and regulating the dairy sector in Israel. Until the change, the council only had data on raw milk production and no real-time knowledge of processing. This complicated its ability to manage the sector, identify production or supply problems in real time, and ensure the proper distribution of milk across different parts of the dairy sector.

Under the new regulations, dairies (those that manufacture products from raw milk, such as Strauss and Tnuva) will have to provide the Dairy Council with regular, detailed reports on what they produce and how much they produce, focusing particularly on items subject to government price controls.

The updated regulations also authorize the council to arrange for raw milk to be transferred between dairies to ensure that price-controlled staples such as liquid milk, white cheese, and yellow cheese are available during periods of short supply.