Milch Cockpit, 01.02.2019

(AMI) - Supply growth on the world market, which had already noticeably slowed down from the middle of the year, came to a standstill at the end of 2018. After initially opposing developments in production volumes of major exporters of dairy products caused a slowdown in the uptrend, bearish trends prevailed in the middle of the last quarter, for the first time since the beginning of 2017. As a result, aggregate production volumes in the EU, US, Australia and New Zealand fell below the previous year's level in November. The lead over the previous year for the period from January to November 2018 thus fell to 1.0% or 2.6 million tonnes. This additional supply has led to increased competition between suppliers on the world market, especially in the second half of the year, resulting in a fall in global prices for dairy products, in particular butter. However, the more moderate supply trend towards the end of the year was able to halt this development. At the turn of the year it even came back to firmer tendencies, at the same time as demand was brisk.Lower volumes or slower growth for exporters The easing on the supply side in November resulted, on the one hand, from the declining volume developments in Australia and the EU. In Down Under, the backlog increased to 7.8% compared to the previous year as a result of the prevailing drought. In the EU, too, the volume of milk in November continued to fall below the previous year's level. On the other hand, the climbs weakened partly also further. In New Zealand, growth slowed to 1.0% in November. In the US, growth also weakened in November, standing at 0.6%.