Inside Milk
Intervention sales are once again high
The European Commission (EC) has sold a large volume of skimmed milk powder from intervention stock for the third time in a row. Reducing stocks can be seen as a boost now that price pressure in milk fat is increasing.
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Another tender was held on Tuesday 20 November, in which 26.082 tons of skimmed milk powder were sold. The underprice was €1.313 per 100 kilos. This means that the traded volume for the third tender is in a row above 25.000 tons.
Meanwhile, the stock has fallen below 200.000 tons. At the beginning of this year, 378.000 tons were still in stock. The realized price is the highest since November last year; then the traded volume yielded $1.390 per 100 kilos. At the time, however, only 40 tons were traded.
Boost for milk protein
The dwindling supply will most likely bring air to the skimmed milk powder market. In the past 6 weeks, the price of skimmed milk powder (ZuivelNL) already at €910 to €1.620 per tonne. The higher prices make it interesting for some market parties to buy intervention stocks, given that the price difference is still more than €200 per tonne.
For the valorisation of milk protein, dwindling intervention stocks are a boost, because as a result a price-depressing factor increasingly disappears into the background; especially now that the price pressure in milk fat (butter and cream) is starting to increase.