21 December 2018

This week has seen an unfestive hike in the milk powder markets.

Rising inexplicably, truth be told. The €20 hike on whey, I suspect, is currency related, whilst the ravages of the Westminster pantomime continue to weigh on sterling. The fundamentals remain the same, reasonable stocks in a well sold Q1 market. Prices may ease later in January, but probably only sightly, against the backdrop of the shenanigans in the skim milk market.

Re which, skim milk powder is a very different beast. How can a government fire sale of 30% of intervention stock in one week result in a €100 price hike by the middle market?? This reeks of massive trader interference, stimulating a false hike to stimulate panic buying and short selling, to buy in and square their books on the resultant slide.

That’s my reading of it, but when the intervention selling price is the wrong side of €300 per tonne of the current market price, how is that sustainable, when there’s still 130,000 tonnes of unsold intervention stock, even allowing for the fall in milk production caused by the lack in fodder.

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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