In the first eight months of this year gross milk output amounted to 520,000 tonnes, 15% up on the similar period last year, Info-Prim Neo learned from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry. Ion Buzu, head of the husbandry department at the Ministry, informed that the volume of milk purchased for further processing also rose by 15.6% to 107,500 tonnes. The amount of liquid milk processed increased by 8.1%, low-fat milk powder by 40%, canned and condensed milk by 89.5%, butter by 41.2%, cheese by 3.2%. According to Ion Buzu, the price offered for milk by dairies ranged from 2.8 to 3.2 lei/kg. The milk bought by consumers directly from farms was priced 3.5 to 4 lei/kg. As of late August, processing companies held in their stocks 582 tonnes of butter, 654 tonnes of cheese and 944 tonnes of dry milk.