News

Cheese demand leading to surprising uptick

A dairy consultant says the latest cold storage report did not have as large of a cheese build up as he was expecting which has been supportive to prices. 

Mike McCully, president of The McCully Group, tells Brownfield the January cheese stocks number was not as high as in years past.

“There’s a combination of things probably behind it, one is reduced production, two is maybe some better demand,” he speculates.

However, he says mozzarella is continuing to struggle with ongoing cutbacks in food service demand and butter stocks are rapidly building.

“Probably at a rate we’re going to continue to see climb to 400 million pounds or more by springtime which will be burdensome in terms of butter stocks,” he estimates.

McCully expects the second quarter to bring transitioning demand as more people get vaccinated and return to food service with a more durable recovery in the second half of the year.