Small boosts in trade, not yet for the entire market

A dairy sector cannot live on latent demand. So in that respect there is not really much good news yet, especially now that the milk supply is increasing. However, there are hopeful signals for those who want to see them. In any case, the market is less unanimously negative than last week. Then the pluses were completely missing. Now there is more upward movement to be seen.

The most striking thing is the revival of the skimmed milk powder price. This revival is only noticeable with milk powder for food and not with feed.

It is probably also mainly an effect of the export contract to Algeria, which was won by three European parties (including two Dutch ones). The three of them are allowed to supply 16.000 tons of skimmed milk powder to Algeria, which in itself is not exceptionally high. Yet the market derives a small upward price effect from it, and the feeling that at least a bottom has been reached in the market.

Otherwise, the milk powder market is fairly quiet and the dairy sector is in a period of increasing supply.

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The whey powder market continues to decline, which is partly caused by still ample stocks in the animal feed sector and weak demand from China, among others. Pig farming there remains under pressure and there is therefore limited demand for protein-rich piglet feed.

In the case of semi-finished products, the rising price of milk powder appears to be one of the reasons for the rising concentrate price. Skimmed milk concentrate is still relatively cheap, but not as it was last week.

The price of cream has also risen, which appears to be due to better demand and higher prices for butter. Cheaper supply from elsewhere does not seem to be putting pressure on butter prices for now.

The cheese market is mainly quite quiet, parties note. Not much is happening in terms of trade. Yet producers say they are not faced with all kinds of stocks. The cheese delivered also remains relatively young. On the other hand, most buyers are far from having their needs met, traders believe. Some believe that 50% to 75% of the need for cheese will not be met for the coming months.

It is striking that Gouda and Edam foil cheese is under more pressure this week than the other cheese types.

It is also noticeable that the Cheddar price is holding up relatively well, even though there is extra cheap American Cheddar available. This product has been on the market for several weeks, but many European processors apparently hesitate to use this different product. A lower price also has disadvantages, such as having to switch and not being able to say exactly what quality is being achieved.