Sentiment seems to be cooling a bit in the global dairy trade for the past few weeks. European butter prices fell marginally by €80/t this week, although it had been rising sharply for the last few weeks, so a slight levelling off is not unexpected.
Sentiment seems to be cooling a bit in the global dairy trade for the past few weeks.
European butter prices fell marginally by €80/t this week, although it had been rising sharply for the last few weeks, so a slight levelling off is not unexpected.
European powder prices are steady, with whole milk powder (WMP) increasing by €5/t, while skim milk powder (SMP), which has been the worst performer for more than 12 months, held steady after a few weeks of declining prices. Cheddar cheese on the other hand dropped in price by €25/t.
Interestingly, more European-style cheeses have been doing a lot better than cheddar in recent months, with mozzarella, Gouda and Edam increasing by between €200 and €400/t over the last month.
This is probably positive news for the likes of Tirlán and Carbery which have invested in European-style cheese.
The futures price for SMP is a bit more positive than the current price suggests, putting SMP at €100/t more by the middle of the year.
Dutch milk production for January and February is back 3.85% on the same time last year, which is a substantial drop all things considered.
Meanwhile, New Zealand milk production declined by 2.56% for February, but that was after a super first half of the season, which saw milk supply up 2.42% than the same time in the previous season.
A lot of that extra product is going into butter and cheese, with exports of each up 17% and 32% respectively. Meanwhile, the latest stats from the US show that January milk supply was up a fraction.
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