There wasn’t much good news from the dairy markets this week, as all of the main commodities reported price drops.
Butter took the biggest hit, dropping in price by €165/t to reach €6,815/t, which is now back by almost €600/t on its June price.
It is still an historically high price for butter, but it seems as though the extra supply of butter on the market is dampening the price. EU butter manufacturing is up 1.1% in the year to the end of May compared with the same period last year.
Butter prices in the US have also fallen significantly, with the EU reporting that US butter prices have fallen by 7.2% in the last two weeks.
Interestingly, the opposite is true for cheese, with US cheese prices increasing by 7.6% over the last two weeks.
However, both butter and cheese are trading at a heavy discount in the US compared with the European prices. European cheese prices fell by €15/t this week, but of all the commodities we report on, cheese prices have been the most stable over the last six months.
There is some talk in the industry of that being set to change, with the disturbances caused by the US tariffs leading to some continental processors switching production from casein to cheese.
The US is a key market for casein and between tariffs and currency fluctuations, EU casein, including Irish casein, is under pressure. Irish casein exports to the US were worth over €150m in 2023.
Meanwhile, as reported on page 25, Irish milk processors are leading the charge when it comes to European milk price cuts.
There wasn’t much good news from the dairy markets this week, as all of the main commodities reported price drops.
Butter took the biggest hit, dropping in price by €165/t to reach €6,815/t, which is now back by almost €600/t on its June price.
It is still an historically high price for butter, but it seems as though the extra supply of butter on the market is dampening the price. EU butter manufacturing is up 1.1% in the year to the end of May compared with the same period last year.
Butter prices in the US have also fallen significantly, with the EU reporting that US butter prices have fallen by 7.2% in the last two weeks.
Interestingly, the opposite is true for cheese, with US cheese prices increasing by 7.6% over the last two weeks.
However, both butter and cheese are trading at a heavy discount in the US compared with the European prices. European cheese prices fell by €15/t this week, but of all the commodities we report on, cheese prices have been the most stable over the last six months.
There is some talk in the industry of that being set to change, with the disturbances caused by the US tariffs leading to some continental processors switching production from casein to cheese.
The US is a key market for casein and between tariffs and currency fluctuations, EU casein, including Irish casein, is under pressure. Irish casein exports to the US were worth over €150m in 2023.
Meanwhile, as reported on page 25, Irish milk processors are leading the charge when it comes to European milk price cuts.
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