France brings music to the dairy market

If it had depended on Dutch dairy, the spot milk price would not have changed much in recent years. There is still good milk production and supply, combined with quiet, if not difficult, sales. This is also the case in Northern Germany. Moreover, the value added is not great, as can be seen from the Kieler Rohstoffwert

However, this does not take into account the shortage of milk on the French market. Due to the drought and high temperatures in recent weeks, milk production has fallen sharply and additional supplies from other countries are needed to keep store shelves stocked.

On the liquid market, the price of cream also continues to rise by leaps and bounds, due to strong demand from the fresh segment and declining availability of milk. As a result, the price difference with butter continues to increase, even though there was also a plus for butter this week. The expensive cream causes butter makers to give up for a while and no longer buy more cream. A price difference of €1.400 per tonne is too large to bridge.

In this situation there is room to put older butter on the market. There is still plenty of product available. Cheaper fresh product is also available from France. There there is a particular demand for protein, for which raw milk and skimmed milk are imported. The fat component remains and returns to the market.  

The price of skimmed milk concentrate, meanwhile, remains fairly stable. Raw milk continues to rise in price. This is mainly due to the above-mentioned demand from France and other Southern European countries.

Gradually there is a little more relief in the powder and cheese markets. The milk powder market now appears to have reached its bottom, although exporters still have to fight hard to book export orders for skimmed milk powder and other powders. The competition from other providers is enormous, although the changing exchange rate helps Europe a little. At least compared to New Zealand, the US and partly South America. The GDT auction from earlier this week also brought a bit of peace. In any case, no further price drops, but a slight upward correction. The effect of this can also be seen in this week's DCA quotation.

Skimmed milk powder food prices remained virtually stable, the price of feed milk powder increased slightly towards food-grade powder. It is a movement that is more often visible at low prices. Sometimes feed-grade product seems almost more attractive than food-grade, because of the relatively better protein content.

However, for exports to countries with a really tight budget, the major exporters also have to compete with extremely cheap product from Russia and Belarus, product that meets few official standards, but which is sold for around €1.800 per tonne. offered. A European exporter cannot offer much in return in terms of price, except perhaps a fat-filled whey-based milk powder.

Remarkably, this week the whey powder market suddenly came to life. While regular milk powders were doing quite calmly, the feed market in particular started moving with a bang and the price suddenly went up by almost 10%.  

On the cheese market, prices for Cheddar and mozzarella are under slight pressure, while slight gains were recorded for Gouda and Edam foil cheeses.
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It is difficult to explain why this happens. The demand for foil cheeses is reasonably healthy in the short term, but there is more uncertainty for longer-term supply. Parties are cautious about committing too much, but there still does not appear to be an oversupply. However, there are more mixed opinions about the availability of natural cheese. This variety seems to be slightly weaker in the market.