Watch out for most dairy products

This means that the spot milk price in the Netherlands is slightly below the average milk price paid by the factories. In Germany, spot milk and factory price appear to be slightly more in balance.

Cream and skimmed milk concentrate both increased in price. Cream became €70 more expensive per tonne, concentrate €85, but surprisingly this is not reflected in higher milk powder and butter prices. They actually went down.

Even the price of cheese did not increase further this week. So there is some hesitation in the market. Will the market as a whole take a further step upwards, also in connection with the decreasing milk supply? Or is the upward stretch gone?

There will be another GDT auction next week. Major traders and producers hope to derive new direction from this. Those involved are especially curious to know whether China will finally buy more products again. Europe hardly exports, but could also benefit from a more expensive GDT auction. This also makes our own export easier. Last week, a large order from Algeria was missed by Europe due to the high European price level; Fonterra offered more competitively.

Waiting for consumer
Within Europe we are waiting for clearer signals from retail. How do consumers deal with the higher dairy prices? There has been a movement towards more private labels for some time now, but will less dairy be purchased? If there is no volume decline, there is room for possibly slightly higher prices, or so the reasoning goes. 
The dairy industry continues to increase the milk prices it pays to livestock farmers. No longer in leaps and bounds, but in small steps. For example, FrieslandCampina increased the milk price for September by €1,25 per 100 kilos, DOC Kaas did so by €1,07. 

The feeling is that almost all dairy companies in Northwestern Europe now pay around €60 per 100 kilos, but that not much more will be added after that.