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Milk price of 36 euros too low for German dairy farmer
The average German milk price this year is 36 euros per 100 kilos, which seems like a good milk price. Nevertheless, the German dairy industry urgently needs to agree higher prices with supermarkets and other buyers.
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"Dairy farms that were considered future-oriented five or ten years ago now have to close their doors at the current milk price," says Stahl. The milk price this year is clearly higher than in 2020, but the cost price has risen even faster, Stahl knows.
The current dairy market is tight and tense, the MIV points out. The supply is lagging behind the demand. This also leaves room for higher selling prices. Yet the MIV does not want to call the market overheated. At good prices, the availability of milk can also improve.
Volume of organic milk increases
Milk supply barely increased in the past year. The volume of conventional milk increased by 0,1% to 31,8 billion kilos. The production of organic milk has meanwhile increased faster and increased by 3,95 to 1,24 billion kilos (+130 million kilos). Sales of organic dairy in supermarkets rose faster than production and achieved a share of 16,1% in consumer milk. In the meantime, the share of meadow milk also increased to 22,5% of all milk sales.
The 'vegan wave', as the MIV calls it, mainly affected drinking milk. Oat and other non-milk drinks accounted for 9% of all drinking dairy.
Cheese export caught up
Raw milk, concentrate and cream overtook cheese last year as the largest German export product in terms of volume. In terms of value, however, cheese remained the most important export product.
The Netherlands is the second largest buyer of German cheese after Italy. Last year, sales to the Netherlands increased by 16.000 tons to 170.000 tons, while sales to Italy decreased by 8.000 tons to 235.000 tons.