Supply is still the issue driving demand and prices higher on dairy commodity markets. The news this week that both UK milk production and Dutch milk production are well back did nothing to help the inbalance. According to AHDB, UK milk production could fall by as much as 650m litres and 5.3% compared to last year’s production.

Dutch milk supply was again lower in March than in the same month last year. This continues the trend in Dutch national milk production so far this year, which is quite flat relative to Irish production curves.

Last month, Dutch dairies processed a total of almost 1.2bn tonnes of milk. This is a decrease of 2.5% compared to the same month last year. This means that the decrease is larger than in February, when the difference with the previous year was still 1.5%.

Interestingly, I see Dutch dairy giant FrieslandCampina wants to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and be climate neutral by 2050. For the period up to approximately 2030, it wants to invest €1.5bn for this, by, among other things, electrifying production processes and making the members (milk suppliers) more sustainable.