Oceania: competition with Europe increases [News Oceania n°6/2015]

Period: March 9 – 20, 2015

AUSTRALIA

• Milk production: has been supported by favorable weather conditions and fairly good producer margins.
• Weather situation: favorable over most of the key dairying regions. Recent rains across southern Australia have improved paddocks, and producers are delaying their hay purchases.
• Milk producers: producer margins have been fairly good. Reduced demand has caused some hay prices to edge slightly lower. Dairy cow culling rates have increased due to high beef prices. The number of heifers available for export has declined as producers are keeping more heifers for their own herds.

NEW ZEALAND: informations about production of milk and weather are not available for this period.

MILK PRODUCTION

• New Zealand *: +4.12% (Jun-Dec 14 vs. Jun-Dec 13)
• Australia *: +2.62% (Jul-Dec 14 vs. Jul-Dec 13)

BUTTER (82%): prices moved substantially lower; competition with Europe increases; demand for butter has declined, as many of the major buyers already covered their needs for Q2; butteroil prices also moved lower.

CHEDDAR CHEESE: prices moved marginally lower in response to increased global competition, especially from Europe; production is tapering off as milk production seasonally declines; supplies are readily available for export; demand remains fairly active with Japan, Korea and China looking to add to existing orders.

SMP: near term pricing increased, while prices through the second half of Q2 moved lower; supplies are readily available throughout Oceania, and global supplies are expected to increase in the coming weeks; export demand is fairly good, but buyers are more sensitive to pricing.

WMP: prices move substantially lower, while competition with Europe increases; demand has softened as a number of major buyers have covered a majority of their needs through Q3; supplies are readily available via New Zealand, while the majority of stocks in Australian are committed.

In Oceania dairy commodity prices decreased, while Europe has become more competitive.

Note: · Assessments about market trend are expressed in US$; · * Dairy season: July, 1st – June, 30th (Australia), June, 1st – May, 31st (New Zealand).

Source: USDA summarized by the CLAL Team

More informations about milk production in New Zealand and Australia are available on CLAL.it

CLAL.it – Prices of SMP in Germany and Oceania, and EU intervention price