It was another poor performance overall for European dairy quotations last week, according to multi-national financial services firm, StoneX.
Senior EU dairy analyst at the company, Peter Meehan explained that the average price of butter, skim milk powder (SMP), whey and whole milk powder (WMP) all dipped, despite some slightly mixed prices movements within the individual products.
The EU butter index made it five declines on the bounce, slipping by €95 (-1.3%) to €7,250, driven by German and French quotations.
SMP saw its fourth decline in a row dropping by €70 (-1.7%) to €3,937, its lowest level since early March.
Meehan said that whey had its 13th decline in a row last week, falling by €47 (-4.6%) to €985, its lowest level since last October.
The WMP index recorded its third decline in a row moving down by €57 (-1.1%) to €5,013.
Meanwhile, the total volume traded on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) last week stood at 4,910t, across 982 lots. Friday was the busiest day for trade activity, with 1,505t sold.
1,810t of butter was traded, 2,775t of SMP and 325t of whey.
“EEX butter futures moved lower again last week, down 1.1% on average across the July 2022-February 2023 strip, with an average price of €6,836. EEX SMP was also lower, with its average price coming in at €3,699, down 1.3% on the week.
“EEX whey, meanwhile, was also down again, falling by 1.1% on average over its July 2022- February 2023 strip, with an average price of €996,” Meehan said.
It was also another negative week for cheese with all of the EEX weekly indices moving down.
Milk production
The StoneX dairy analysis shows that French milk production for May came in at almost 2.2 million tonnes, down nearly 2% year-on-year.
10.51 million tonnes has been collected so far this year, which is back by 1.4% compared to the same period in 2021. Fat was reported at 3.93% in May, while protein content came in at 3.21%.
In Spain, May milk production was 654 kiltons (kt), which is down 1.3% year-on-year. Fat content was reported at 3.71%, while protein content slipped to 3.27%
Milk production in May in Denmark was reported at 492kt, which is marginally back compared to 2021.
Year-to-date collection now total 2.36 million tonnes, which is up 0.4% on the same period last year.
Danish milk fat is reported at 4.26%, while protein content is reported at 3.56%.
Meehan noted that milk collections for June in the Netherlands stood at 1.15 million tonnes, up 1.5% in a year.
Collections for the first half of the year now sit at 6.91 million tonnes, down 1.5% year-on-year. Fat content for June was reported at 4.25%.
Meanhile, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) slightly lowered their 2022 forecast for domestic milk production in the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report
“The 2022 forecast was lowered to 102.5 million tonnes, which would see production fall 0.1% behind the volume collected in 2021.
“A reduction in expected milk per cow for 2022 is cited as the reason for the adjustment,” Meehan explained.
The USDA’s forecast for 2023 was also lowered slightly, coming in at 103.6 million tonnes which would equate to a 1.0% increase on the forecast for 2022.