Tuesday, 26 November 2019 13:55

Skim milk prices up

Written by Staff Reporters

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

Fonterra skim milk powder ready for export.

Global demand for skim milk powder (SMP) is increasing.

As SMP stockpiled in European warehouses over the years dwindles, prices are on the rise.

Last week’s Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction saw SMP price rise 3.3% to US$3017/tonne, the highest level in five years.

In August 2015, SMP prices slumped to US$1419/t: around this time last year, SMP was fetching only US$1965/t.

Open Country Dairy chief executive Steve Koekemoer has told farmer suppliers that over the past few years we have seen SMP prices struggle due to the high stocks produced in the EU.

“If you recall, they were stockpiling for some time which held prices down,” he writes in the company’s monthly newsletter Talk Milk.

“These stocks have been worked through and it seems as manufacturers have directed milk away from SMP into other product mixes there is now a shortage.

“Buyers have realised this recently and helped SMP prices reach the highest level seen in five years.”

Open Country has not traditionally been a big SMP producer.

However, Koekemoer says with the new upgrade at Awarua coming on line in March next year, it will be able to market a competitive SMP offering.

Featured

Czarnikow Launches Digital Milk Pricing Tool in NZ

New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.

Pāmu Opens Farm Gates for Summer Open Farm Days

State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.

Northland Study: Emissions Cuts "Unsustainable" for Dairy

A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.

DairyNZ: Waikato Farmers Need Certainty on PC1 Rules

DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.

NZ Rural Contractors Push for Urgent VDAM Rule Reform

While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.

Government's New Planning System, PC1 'Won't Mesh Together Well'

Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.