Paraguay exported close to 21,300t of fresh beef for the month of March, which was a 22% decline compared with the same month last year. This brings fresh beef exports from Paraguay for the first three months of 2018 close to 59,000t, more than 11% down on last year.

Dairy commodity exports from the EU28 in January and February this year stood at 830,000t, a 5% increase on last year. This was led by a strong increase in exports of SMP (+12%), whey (+17%) and infant formula (+24%) during the period.

US farmers have planted less than 12m acres in spring crops so far this season. This is less than half the area that would normally be planted at this time of year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. US farmers will plant almost 220m acres in spring crops.

Rabobank Australia has forecast a base milk price of $5.40/kg of milk solids for the 2018/19 milking season, which would be close to breakeven for many Australian dairy farmers. Milk production in Australia is forecast to rise a further 3% next season.