Market News

Cash cheese blocks slipping

Cash cheese blocks slipped a little more on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, blocks have lost 9.25 cents in the first two days this week on a couple of uncovered offers. Barrels have held steady as has butter.

A lot of speculation in the dairy market these days, there is a lot of milk being produced and cheese factories are running at-or-near capacity. The drop in prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is no big surprise, everyone figured prices had to come more in-line with the global market at some point.  Some were surprised by how fast they have dropped.  The train of thought was once the prices fell, buyers would jump in…but that is not happening prompting some to think we are getting close to filling holiday demands and there is a lot of cheese being made.

 

The Global Dairy Trade auction on Tuesday saw the overall price decline another 3.1 percent from the November 4^th sale.  The prices for butter milk powder, butter and cheddar cheese were higher but not enough to offset declines in whole milk powder, skim milk powder and rennet casein.  No lactose or sweet whey powder was offered for sale.

The overall GDT price index slips to 747, it has been steadily declining since February and is now the lowest it has been since August of 2009.

 

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 7 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America and Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) to sell 1.704 million pounds of Cheddar cheese in Asia, Europe and North Africa. The product will be delivered December 2014 through April 2015. 

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 99.320 million pounds of cheese, 56.287 million pounds of butter and 55.623 million pounds of whole milk powder to 45 countries on six continents.