Americans’ rekindled love affair with butter continues to gain momentum. In 2023, the average American consumed 6.5 pounds of butter. That growth continued in 2024 as October’s domestic butter consumption climbed 11.2% to 217.4 million pounds when compared to the same time last year, reported USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).

“Rekindled” is a key word in this narrative. While 6.5 pounds is the highest consumption since 1965, at one time, butter topped the leader board for all dairy product sales . . . even being higher than cheese. From 1909 to 1960, per capita butter consumption ranged from 10.9 to 18.7 pounds per person. That’s also according to data from ERS.

An important domestic development

As one would expect, domestic butter production continues to grow. In November, the U.S. produced 170.8 million pounds of butter. That was up 4.4% when compared to the same time last year.

The most recent USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service report for butter production has some interesting numbers in it. While U.S. butter production climbed 4.4% in November, California’s butter output fell a whopping 12.8% compared to one year ago.

In November 2023, the Golden State produced 51.6 million pounds of butter, and that total represented 48.8% of U.S. production. This time around, California’s 45 million pounds represented just 37.9% of the nation’s total output. Of course, it stands to reason that California’s butter production took a dramatic downturn as November milk production fell 9.2% while the state’s dairy farmers battled an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

To bridge the gap in production, other regions churned out more butter. The remaining 49 U.S. states produced 125.8 million pounds of butter and boosted production by 12.4%. It’s important to note that USDA separates only two states for butter production data — California and Pennsylvania — as those states have more than three butter plants. When pulling out Pennsylvania from the November data, the remaining U.S. states were up an even more impressive 13.1%.

2024 could become a record year

During the 20th century, U.S. butter production peaked in 1941 at 1.87 billion pounds. That number was not surpassed again for 77 years until butter production reached 1.97 billion pounds in 2018. Currently, 2020 holds the record with 2.15 billion pounds of butter produced in a single year. Through November 2024, production metrics hit 2.20 billion pounds. This means 2024 is poised to go into the books as the top year for U.S. butter production, even though the industry awaits December production data.

Butter imports continue to swell

Still, near-record U.S. butter production has not satisfied consumer demand. From January to November 2024, the U.S. imported a record 204.4 million pounds of butter and milkfats, according to USDA-FAS data. With just 11 months of the 2024 year on the tally sheets, butter imports were up 27% when compared to 2023 and up a whopping 56.7% from 2021. When looking back to 2013, the U.S. now imports 10 times the amount of butter and milkfats.

Even with all this domestic production and inbound butter shipments, butter stocks continue to dwindle. In November, butter stocks totaled 214 million pounds, down 20% when compared to just one month earlier but near equal to one year earlier, reported USDA in its Cold Storage Report. However, stocks were down by nearly 54 million pounds when making a comparison to the five-year average.

All these numbers point to stronger long-term upside for butter . . . a product that already utilizes 18% of the U.S. milk supply when measured on a milkfat equivalent basis.