Cream gets hit, concentrate requested

Room traded below €7.000. The cream quotation fell by €250,00, or 3,51%, per tonne to €6.865, according to DCA data. The quotation for its protein counterpart, skimmed milk concentrate, increased by €95 (-3,07%) to €3.190 per tonne. The price of fresh butter fell by €105 (-1,96%) to €5245 per tonne.

Despite these shifts, all liquid products remain relatively expensive compared to the solid variants that can be made from them. At €6.865, cream is still far too expensive to make butter. A gap of around €500 per tonne is normal, but not €1.600, as is still the case today. The proportions are also off between skimmed milk concentrate and skimmed milk powder. The liquid product is even €5 per tonne more expensive than the dried end product.

Now cheese can also be made from skimmed milk concentrate, and that may have a lower loss, or a fresh product is made from it, but proper 'calculation' never seems to work. The suspicion is therefore that the concentrate is expensive because of the many 'musts', contracts that cannot be met unless additional raw materials are purchased on the spot market.

Another situation where the liquid material is currently more expensive than the dried end product is whey. Condensed whey in liquid form is currently sold at prices just under €1.000 per tonne (almost double compared to six months ago), while whey powder for food destinations is listed at €1.125 per tonne. Here too, the margin is far too small to make up for the costs of transport and drying. These are, by the way, very sharply increased costs.

The spot market for raw milk remains unchanged and tight. At high prices, small volumes of product change hands on average. With a price of €50,50 per 100 kilos, the Dutch spot market is almost a bargain compared to the market in southern Germany or France, where prices of €55 and more are paid per 100 kilos. That is often the price for Vlog milk in Germany (but not in France), and milk from their own region is often requested. 

Given all this, the milk powder market and the cheese market seem almost boringly stable. Prices are at a quiet, high level.

In cheese, the most movement is in the mozzarella quotation, where prices drop by €15 per tonne one week and €10 per tonne the next. There was also a small correction in the quotation for Cheddar curd.

Among powders, the largest adjustments took place in skimmed milk powder. The quotation for this increased by €40 per tonne. Whole milk powder came next. The whey powder market was the quietest. For animal feed, the prices of whey powder and skimmed milk powder have become very expensive again, which is a major setback, especially for the veal calf sector that is recovering somewhat. However, not much can be done about this, given the current tense market situation. The difference between feed and food prices has almost completely disappeared.