@timofeyHere's the thing about buffalo milk: it's not just a South Asia story, even if South Asia is basically running the whole show. The 2024 numbers from FAOSTAT put the reported global total at 153.04 million tonnes, spread across 41 countries with observations for that year. India's the giant here, 105.50 million tonnes, roughly 68.9% of everything reported. Stack India and Pakistan together and you're looking at about 94.9% of the total, since Pakistan lands at 39.79 million tonnes. Then China takes third with 3.17 million tonnes, and the drop-off after that is steep. Nepal sits fourth at 1.40 million tonnes, Egypt fifth at 1.32 million tonnes. Venezuela's at 430,000 tonnes, Bangladesh at 376,100, Myanmar at 330,000. Italy rolls in at 254,100 tonnes, Sri Lanka at 91,700 and Iran just behind at 91,100. Indonesia hits 90,000 tonnes, Türkiye 58,100, Iraq 40,900. Vietnam's at 25,200 tonnes, Mongolia at 22,100, Bulgaria at 15,900, Romania at 15,100. Malaysia closes things out at 6,100 tonnes and Syria at 4,900. Why does any of this matter? FAO points out that buffaloes carry a lot of weight for small-scale farmers in developing countries. In India and Pakistan, they outproduce cattle on milk, which makes them central to dairy livelihoods and food supply. The milk itself goes into drinking milk, yogurt, cheese, butter and plenty of other dairy products. One clarification: these are raw buffalo milk output figures, not buffalo counts and not milk from every animal species combined. Source is FAOSTAT 2024, with calculations and presentation by Terra Cultiva.

@timofeyHere's the thing about buffalo milk: it's not just a South Asia story, even if South Asia is basically running the whole show. The 2024 numbers from FAOSTAT put the reported global total at 153.04 million tonnes, spread across 41 countries with observations for that year. India's the giant here, 105.50 million tonnes, roughly 68.9% of everything reported. Stack India and Pakistan together and you're looking at about 94.9% of the total, since Pakistan lands at 39.79 million tonnes. Then China takes third with 3.17 million tonnes, and the drop-off after that is steep. Nepal sits fourth at 1.40 million tonnes, Egypt fifth at 1.32 million tonnes. Venezuela's at 430,000 tonnes, Bangladesh at 376,100, Myanmar at 330,000. Italy rolls in at 254,100 tonnes, Sri Lanka at 91,700 and Iran just behind at 91,100. Indonesia hits 90,000 tonnes, Türkiye 58,100, Iraq 40,900. Vietnam's at 25,200 tonnes, Mongolia at 22,100, Bulgaria at 15,900, Romania at 15,100. Malaysia closes things out at 6,100 tonnes and Syria at 4,900. Why does any of this matter? FAO points out that buffaloes carry a lot of weight for small-scale farmers in developing countries. In India and Pakistan, they outproduce cattle on milk, which makes them central to dairy livelihoods and food supply. The milk itself goes into drinking milk, yogurt, cheese, butter and plenty of other dairy products. One clarification: these are raw buffalo milk output figures, not buffalo counts and not milk from every animal species combined. Source is FAOSTAT 2024, with calculations and presentation by Terra Cultiva.