In searching for this week’s picture, I was offered variously Trump, Biden, Johnson and even Sturgeon themes on the above, but my point is that milk powder markets seem to be fiddling while the Rome of global soya markets are on fire.

Why milks have decreased this week I know not, but they’re down; sweet whey a whopping 6% (€590) and skim milk nigh on 2% (€2150). Th last time we saw a 5 in front of the sweet whey price was November 2017, when skim milk sat at €1400. Then the intervention sting came in 2018, and the global supply/demand balance fundamentally changed.

This is in the face of the soy complex rising by upwards of 10% over the week. Beans, meal and oil are back in their ménage à trois characteristic of a weather market, rising in unison, soy oil climbing from 57 to 67 cents over the week. Palm oil has climbed a little over 4%, and even sunflower oil, which has been on a downward trajectory since the Ukraine invasion ($2340 down to $800) has put on 10% to $900. The fuse was lit under the soya market by a report from USDA that spooked fears that soya stocks would be exhausted before the US new crop is harvested, due to the El Niño phenomenon parching the Midwest.

Talk in the milk powder markets is essentially unchanged; no one can quite believe these numbers, especially on whey, and producers are adamant that demand will stifle any remaining oversupply in the near future

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