Global supplies of dairy tightening
Washington Ag Today December 4, 2009 It has been a rough year for the producers of Washington’s number two agricultural commodity, milk. At times it was estimated dairies were losing $100 per cow. The situation may be improving. The USDA reported this week the All-Milk price hit a 2009 high in November while feed costs remained below year-earlier levels. Exports are becoming more important to dairy producers and they took a hit with the world economic slowdown. But Margaret Speich with the Dairy Export Council says the world dairy situation is changing. Speich: “What we are seeing right now and what is important in terms of our exports, we are seeing on the supply side that global supplies of dairy are tightening and they are becoming more in-line with the demand side. We are seeing demand for dairy in Asia pick up. In China, just as a quick aside, their economic recovery seems to be coming about faster than our economic recovery here. So in China as well as in other Asian countries we are seeing demand pick up. That is a good thing because buyers are starting to buy more.” Speich does caution that inventories in stocks are high and they need to be depleted before there is a fuller market recovery, but the Dairy Export Council does expect conditions to improve next year. And longer term, in 2012 and beyond, it is expected that demand will strain supply. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ?
