Negative price violence continues to plague the dairy market

The price of cheese, which has also fallen further this week, is the biggest concern. Because cheese production involves the largest volumes of milk. Just three months ago, Gouda foil cheese was sold for around €5,20 per kilo, but the foil cheese price has now dropped below €3 per kilo. The quotation for mozzarella, for which a lot of production capacity has been added in recent years, is even lower.

Things are hardly any less bad on the butter market. The DCA quotation ended this week at €455 per tonne lower than a week ago at €4.175 per tonne. Calculated against the cream quotation, which lost €900 per tonne and is now at €4.205, this is not that bad, but it does not fit in with the current prices that the dairy industry pays to farmers any more than the cheese prices.

Farmers may be happy with this, but the large difference between the prices they receive and the revenues the dairy industry receives from the current sales of its products means that the industry is now eating into its capital.

Millions per month
Maybe she can have that for a while because last year was good money, but not for long. Followers of the dairy market calculate that for every cent that FrieslandCampina now pays out to members more than it receives, roughly €10 million per month must be written off. This situation will not differ much at other companies.

In the meantime, losses are also being incurred on milk powder production, as yield prices continue to fall. Skimmed milk powder for human consumption still yields just over €2.500 per tonne. Other powder prices also continue to fall.

It also sells reasonably well to the Middle East. However, real recovery is not yet underway and milk supplies remain high, which continues to put pressure on prices just as much as weak demand.