Greg's Milk Monitor 27 February 2025: A wider world view

At least the skim milk market has officially lifted €20, giving me a slight shred of credibility in maintaining that the real market is significantly higher than the published one, but it’s same old, same old for sweet whey, unchanged for the seventh unbelievable week. No real changes on other products, WPC is still being withheld from the market and fat filled whey is up again as coconut oil is still heading into the stratosphere.

Looking at the world view, sweet whey is continuing its collapse in the US, but that isn’t doing anything to pressure the still bullish EU pricing.

Most cheeses are still putting on a stellar performance, as the cheddar graph below shows

The bullish expectations of the whey market traders are underpinned by the significantly higher raw milk prices through last year, but they have come off the boil slightly this January

Turning to skim, we see the butter market starting to slide, perhaps leading the downturn in farm gate milk prices in Europe, but the commensurate rise in skim milk powder is perhaps overdone?

BDC agri is the UK broker for Lacto Production milk and whey powder products.

For further information and prices, contact Greg Dunn on 01206 381521 or g.dunn@blackdiamondcommodities.com

Greg's Milk Monitor 20 February 2025: Market still unchanged?

Yes it is, both markets; the quoted values and the real buying prices. Holland is still quoted unchanged, €910 for sweet whey (5 weeks) and €2450 for skim (8 weeks), whilst the actual purchasing minimums are €950 and €2550.

WPC and fat-filled whey are still incredibly difficult to source, and even buttermilk, the poor relation of skim, is commanding near-skim prices.

In other markets, soy oil had a virtually unchanged week, despite some wide daily trading ranges, and palm oil is still inexplicably high. The biggest unknown is how US tariffs and retaliatory taxes will affect the markets now the disrupters are in charge. 

BDC agri is the UK broker for Lacto Production milk and whey powder products.

For further information and prices, contact Greg Dunn on 01206 381521 or g.dunn@blackdiamondcommodities.com

Greg's Milk Monitor 7 February 2025: Status quo maintained

This is the second time I have referenced the gentlemen above in these columns, the last time being when the milk powder market was 'deeper and down’, but this week we see a repeat of unchanged published prices for both whey and skim, yet the real world of provisioning factories is paying yet more to secure physical supplies. The latest theory emerging is that traders spent the late autumn stockpiling long books, which are now being dribbled out at inflated prices, but it would be in the traders' interest to inflate traded prices, not wilfully post them as unchanged. 

WPC and Fat-Filled Whey are both still rare as hens’ teeth, exacerbated by the foot and mouth outbreak in Germany, which is in turn plunging German sweet whey prices, as exports of animal products are still banned in the wider EU and UK, which the below graph demonstrates.

Background markets remain broadly unchanged, the soy complex has been up, down and sideways on rains arriving too late for Argentina, and too much in Mato Grosso, balanced against continued reduced demand from China, trading tariff blows with the US. Palm oil is inexplicably stronger, citing better prospects for biodiesel demand in a world that seems to be going in the other direction.

BDC agri is the UK broker for Lacto Production milk and whey powder products.

For further information and prices, contact Greg Dunn on 01206 381521 or g.dunn@blackdiamondcommodities.com