Dairy Export Report

The March 4, 2009, issue of the ITF newsletter describes a report by The Babcock Institute that we found interesting and thought our customers would, too.

According to the report, the U.S. dairy export and price boom has bottomed out.

During the past 5 years a surge in U.S. (and foreign) dairy products showed a dramatic increase, but in part because of the general global financial picture, world demand has dropped.

U.S. dairy farmers have already been hit with the lowest prices in six years--and this on top of higher feed costs. The end result, as the U.S. Dairy Exports report also makes clear:

"Lost exports mean more milk on the domestic market and larger cuts in the milk supply to balance supply and demand at profitable prices."

All-in-all it's a classic case of marketplace changes due to supply and demand, so here's our take from it all:

If you're currently in the buying mode for dried milk, dairy powders, or other dairy products be sure to factor this into your costs and projections. As you can see below, inventory on hand of various dairy products is has changed from 2008, so depending on your needs, this really could be a great time to buy and stock up for the future.

Dry Milk Powders: (vs Jan '08)
Product	Output	Change
Nonfat dry milk, human	156 million pounds	up 31.1%
Skim milk powders	17.7 million pounds	down 61.3%

Whey products: (vs Jan '08)
Product	Output	Change
Dry whey, total	88.4 million pounds	down 3.6%
Lactose, human and animal	60.3 million pounds	down 3.1%
Whey protein concentrate, total	34.2 million pounds	up 4.2%

Dry Milk Powders: (vs Jan '08)
Product	Output	Change
Nonfat dry milk, human	156 million pounds	up 31.1%
Skim milk powders	17.7 million pounds	down 61.3%

Note: stats as reported by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.