Despite their attempts to ride out the stockpiling of sweet whey and skim milk, processors and more desperate traders have thrown in the towel and taken any buyer’s hand off at the elbow. Both markets have fallen €50 in the last week, which represents a 6% slide in whey but only 2% in skim values.

However, (and isn’t there always a however?) there are signs that the recovering Chinese economy, which has kept soya prices so buoyant recently, has been buying the milk powder market down, so volume is starting to disappear, and the proverbial dead cat could bounce sooner than some may hope.

In supporting indices, the soya complex has been a score draw on beans, oil and meal over the past week. Palm oil remains unchanged, supported by soya oil, but with stocks building, and a spat between Malaysia and the EU on sustainability prompting the empty Malaysian threat to ban exports to Europe, China looks unlikely to take up the slack unless it’s cheap as chips.

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