On Tuesday next week, the European Commission will hold its final tender sale of skimmed milk powder (SMP) from its intervention stockpiles.

This will be the last SMP intervention sale of 2018 and market expectations are already growing that a further 25,000t to 30,000t of product will be sold next week.

Expectations

This would bring the total amount of SMP sold out of intervention in 2018 to more than 250,000t and leave just less than 140,000t still to be sold in the new year.

Market expectations are also growing that the minimum selling price will once again rise at next week’s intervention sale.

At the last tender sale, the minimum sale price was just over €1,310/t.

The growing demand for intervention SMP, which is still relatively fresh and being used for blending, could see prices at next week’s tender sale rise closer to €1,400/t.

On spot markets, prices for freshly produced SMP have also risen in the last week as market sentiment improves slightly.

European spot prices for SMP continue to trade just above intervention prices, while prices reported by the Dutch Dairy Board last week were steady at €1,620/t.