Liquid product rises in otherwise calm dairy market

The price increase for cream has slowed down considerably, but is still there, skimmed milk concentrate is still almost at the same pace as last week and raw milk is also continuing to rise in price. There are several processors who could use a bit more milk, but the product is becoming increasingly scarce.

In Germany and The Netherlands milk production was disappointing in May and there is still no strong recovery, clearly different from Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the latter country, the May supply of milk even increased by more than 5%. In France there was a short-lived plus, but that is also disappearing again.

Spot milk
In the latter countries, therefore, cheaper product is still for sale, but the advantage is shrinking. In France, milk is for sale for 42 or 43 cents per litre, but that is 'thinner' milk than Dutch or German milk and it has to come from far away. For a North-Western European processor, it is then quickly no longer so attractive, even if the price close to home is almost or even a cent or 10 higher.

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Concentrate
Cheaper concentrate is also available in France and the UK, but not cheap enough to transport far. And with concentrate now trading at almost €2.100 per tonne, the processing options are becoming smaller. For the cheese industry, ice cream makers and buyers from southern Europe it is still an interesting product, for the milk powder makers less and less.

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Milk powders
This is also because the listing of skimmed milk powder has been in a narrow and deeply ingrained track for months, with now a small plus, then a minus. The other milk (and whey) powders do almost the same, although the listing of whole milk powder moves a little more due to the much higher fat content.

While the quotation of skimmed milk powder remains relatively low, the quotations of cream and butter remain at a much higher level. They are also less stable than the powder prices.
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Room
This week, however, the cream price has risen considerably less than in previous weeks, while the butter price has fallen back a little. It is difficult to determine whether this is a speculative effect, or purely a result of supply and demand. The demand for butter remains good and there are still no real stocks.

A lot of milk fat also disappears into the food service channel and into mozzarella production, which is now in full swing. This type of cheese is currently by far the most attractive type to make, because demand is good, also for export, while less milk is needed than for foil cheese or other, harder cheeses and the production time is also much shorter. The whey is also at least as 'rich' as ​​traditional whey.

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foil cheese
The price is still slightly below that of Gouda foil cheese, but actually very little more. The fact that the mozzarella quotation is falling a little faster this week than the quotations of most other cheeses, is something the product can handle. And the price drop for cheeses is not all that dramatic either.