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Vitaliano: Tariffs have cost dairy farmers $1.8 billion so far

The impact of tariffs on dairy prices is not clear, but an analyst says the damage is already significant.

Peter Vitaliano is National Milk Producer’s Vice President of Economic Policy and Market Research. He says, “We had basically a reduction by my calculations of about $1.65 loss per hundredweight during the last six months.”

Vitaliano tells Brownfield based on what has already happened in the futures markets, dairy farmer income is way down.  “The total estimated loss of U.S. dairy farmer income during those six months is 1.8 billion dollars.”

Vitaliano says the numbers showing how the tariffs affect trade lag by a month or two, so the full picture isn’t known yet. He says a lot of buyers around the world are expecting the tariffs to weaken dairy product prices, and it’s already happening.  “International butter prices have dropped just over the last two weeks by over 400 dollars a ton.  That’s a huge drop.”

Vitaliano says up to this point, dairy exports have been pretty good, especially the exports of dairy ingredients.