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Dairy prosperity passes Dutch farmers by
For dairy farmers worldwide, 'a time of prosperity' has arrived, RaboResearch notes in a new quarterly report on the situation on the dairy market. In all major producing regions, supply is increasing, albeit modestly, while no major problems are emerging on the market. For Dutch dairy farmers, things are more complicated, says Rabobank when asked.
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Dutch dairy farmers do not really share in the wealth that is suddenly there, for the first time since 2020. The sales markets do look much better than they have for a long time, but the average Dutch dairy farmer is faced with the problem that the cost level is very high. Moreover, given the situation on the manure market, many dairy farmers may face even more costs next year, according to the bank.
This means that the Dutch dairy farmer can benefit less from the favourable market conditions on average than colleagues in other parts of North-West Europe. An additional point is that the milk supply in the Netherlands, even with rising milk prices in recent months, has lagged behind the supply in the same period last year.
However, the differences between dairy farms in the Netherlands are large. Both milk prices and prices for manure disposal are sometimes quite far apart, making it difficult to draw one conclusion.
The lagging milk supply in the Netherlands also slowed down cheese production and export. Based on data up to August of this year, RaboResearch found that Dutch cheese production was 1,1% lower than in the same period last year. This amounts to 6.700 tonnes.
This gap was however made up by Germany and Denmark. These countries produced 3,5% and 5,5% more respectively. Expressed in tonnes this amounts to 65.280 and 18.400 tonnes. This also made extra export possible by both countries.