Inside Milk
Fragile soil below the price of phosphate rights
After several weeks of sharp price drops, the market for phosphate rights is beginning to show erratic trends. The question is whether the price has now hit a bottom, or whether it has not yet been found.
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The price of phosphate rights has been showing a downward trend for some time, but that appears to have been broken this week. At the end of last week, the market unexpectedly lifted again, with offers at €250 per right.
Daily rate: falling
In the meantime, those levels have disappeared from the boards again and rights are traded between €240 and €246 per right, with the current daily rate slightly decreasing. Small lots are often traded (200 to 300 kilos of phosphate). It cannot yet be said that the market has definitively hit a bottom. However, the downward price pressure of recent weeks has subsided somewhat.
The movements in the market are described as 'very erratic'. Various traders indicate that there is still (great) purchasing pressure, but that dairy farmers often lack the financial resources to do business.