It is fair to say the increasing spring milk supply is once again putting pressure on dairy prices this week.

Maybe the milk tax discussed in the Netherlands will quench demand and make the situation even worse.

On the European spot markets, the spring supply rush effect was actually not too bad last week and this week.

Dutch spot milk was about 1 c/litre cheaper than last week. In southern Germany, there was slightly more pressure. In France, there is more milk, especially organic, which is being sold as conventional milk.

The one product that suffers most in spring is skimmed milk powder (SMP). According to DCA’s quotes, the price fell by more than 15% to less than €1,500/t, but there have been sales at even less than €1,500.

Butter and cheese are important commodities in an Irish context. The price of cream also fell sharply. With quotes of less than €5,000/t, cream is also undervalued compared with butter (€4,735) and butter oil.

Price pressure also remains with milk powders. Many dairy companies want to prevent a lot of liquid product from entering the spot market and therefore make more powder at this time.

So with more SMP on the market, it is hard to see any rise in price with that. However, compared with other powders, SMP still seems to be quite good in the market.

Selling uncontracted whole milk powder and fat-filled milk powder is much more difficult.

Seemingly, some fat filled powder is already going for feed. Cheese is following a similar trend to that described above.