Analysis dairy business
Fear of heights is being felt in dairy markets
Prices in parts of the dairy market have soared in the past week that parties are starting to experience a fear of heights. Cream prices of more than €8000 per ton and foil cheese prices that hover around €5000 put the nerves of many parties to the test. Still people buy, because the fear of not being able to get a product is stronger.
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Perhaps the most moderate picture for solid dairy products was seen on the powder market, as DCA notes. Now €130 extra in a week is no small amount for skimmed milk powder food. Certainly not at the current price levels, but that is the most extreme movement in this submarket. Skimmed milk powder for animal feed rose slightly more slowly in price.
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Whole milk powder followed closely behind skimmed milk powder food in terms of price increases, but the trade in this product is much less lively. Fat Filled milk powder came to approximately €3.475 per tonne.
Remarkably, the prices for whey powder actually suffered a small correction. It is impossible to say whether this is the beginning of a trend break, or whether it amounts to nothing more than is currently visible. There is a great sense of volatility in the market and sentiment can change quickly.
It is more exciting at the cheese market. Various parties discovered that they had not purchased enough cheese for the second quarter, while a number of large producers have little left to offer. At least that's what it says. This situation had a strong price-increasing effect. This was most noticeable with mozzarella.
Mozzarella steams past Gouda
The price of mozzarella rose by €370 per tonne to €4.930, according to the DCA quotation. This not only increased its price more than the other types of cheese, but also made it more expensive than, for example, Gouda and Edam foil cheese. While these are products with a much higher dry matter content. However, that is not the decisive argument for buyers.
Prices for Cheddar curd and mild rose the most slowly, but are still approaching €5.300 per tonne.
The current prices leave producers wanting more. Here and there, a price of €6.000 per tonne is already being asked for foil cheese with delivery in the third quarter. It is up to the buyers to decide whether they think that is realistic or not.
For butter, the price rose quite calmly after a hectic previous week and the DCA listing at €6.730 per tonne, but within a wide price range.
Price peaks up to €8.200
However, the price increase for butter paled in comparison to what happened to cream. There, the quotation rose by an average of €635 to almost €8.000 per tonne, while peaks of up to €8.200 per tonne were recorded during the week.
The spot price for raw milk rose slightly, especially in the Netherlands, while it remained largely stable in Germany. There also appears to be a slightly wider supply, although according to the latest figures, German milk supply is slightly more behind last year than was known last week (-1,7% instead of -1,6%).
Skimmed milk gets hit
The quotation of skimmed milk concentrate rose the most after cream and almost reached €3.600 per tonne. It was striking that the price for skimmed milk actually fell slightly. This was a side effect of the strong demand for cream. So much milk was skimmed that there was slightly less room for the by-product.