Cheese market remains solid, thick liquid shoots up

Some parties had already expected this kind of price movement a week ago, because they were already trading for the needs after Easter. With a slight delay the effect is still there.

According to DCA's quotation, the cream price rose by €200 to €8.710 per tonne. The concentrate quotation increased by €120 per tonne.

The spread in prices was large for cream. Some parties recorded prices of more than €9.000 per tonne, others did not exceed €8.500 per tonne. The fact that the price of butter also rose was more of a side effect of the strong price increase for cream. It is said that the butter market remains tight and stockpiling is not taking place at all. Yet here the resistance to higher prices is quite strong.

With skimmed milk concentrate the picture was slightly calmer than with cream, but here the difference in movement compared to skimmed milk powder is particularly striking.

The quotation of skimmed milk powder lost €175 per tonne, which can be explained for all kinds of reasons, but skimmed milk concentrate has since risen to such a price level that (from a yield perspective) it can no longer be made into skimmed milk powder. In the meantime, the concentrate can still be used for the production of fresh dairy or cheese.

The continued price declines on the milk powder market are mainly due to developments outside Europe. There is cheaper product available there, helped by an also cheaper dollar. Skimmed milk powder from the US is particularly attractively priced. Yet buyers hesitate at the current average price levels. On the recent one GDT auction (which fell further), it was said that non-Chinese Asians in particular were the ones to fail. And price drops on the GDT usually also affect quotations in Europe.

Among milk powders, the quotation for whole milk powder compared favorably to the rest. However, whole milk powder is a small product on the open market. even though its production volume is quite extensive. It is mainly produced to order. That is why the quotation is often seen as a kind of calculation price.

Just like skimmed milk powder, the price of whey powder also fell, and it is also striking that the price difference between whey powder food and whey powder feed. It is a side effect of a declining market.

In the meantime, the cheese market remains stable, with rising prices, but the price movements do not always parallel the feeling about what is happening in the market. There were quite a few noises about sharply rising prices for Cheddar. That's not so bad in the end. Meanwhile, stronger price increases for Gouda and Edam cheese were recorded than first thought. 

Mozzarella, meanwhile, also remained in good demand, fetching €25 per tonne more than a week earlier. Perhaps because the cheese market as a whole continues to rise so steadily, this is where the most confidence can be felt. There is good demand, with tight product availability and relatively little complaint about prices.