Finally, after a surprising collapse in sweet whey and skim milk, the market seems to have turned. Sweet whey is up 1.5%, only a modest €10, and skim milk posted unchanged levels.

What this has done is brought out the buying community, who can’t quite believe whey has plunged so far below cost of production. There are certainly some burnt fingers in the middle market, long books bought on the way down with averages well above today’s headline figure, owned by traders keen to turn a rout into a profit, so I suspect awakening purchasing interest will be met by processor and trader alike, keen to make buyers chase the market higher. I stress this is very much a personal view, wiser heads predict only a soft increase, but no one expects further discounting.

Skim milk is perhaps in less of a bind, as it still sits at €2260, and nominally above the cost of production, so we may not see quite so much upward pressure. But milk powders now seem disconnected from the vegoil markets, which are broadly unchanged over the week.

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