Cheese market: pent-up demand for prices

Further price increases are expected on the cheese market, even after the price rises in July. Due to the longer duration of contracts, prices here fluctuate less sharply in the short term than those of most other dairy products. Even after cheese has become significantly more expensive since the spring, further increases are unavoidable if cheese production is to remain competitive with other types of processing. The milk supplied to dairies is utilized to a greater extent, particularly via butter and milk powder, and the level of utilization achieved there is likely to remain for some time to come and could even strengthen further. Some of the shortfall may already have been made up in short-term sales contracts for cheese, but the prices achievable here will not be realized in the longer-term contracts and will only be realized in follow-up transactions. The fact that cheese production in Germany and the EU has had a difficult time this year is also reflected in the fact that it did not increase in the first five months, contrary to the long-term trend. However, as the upward trend in exports has continued unabated, there is less product left for the European domestic market.

The problem of competing for the raw material milk is more acute for all cheese producers, regardless of whether they produce for the domestic market or for export, in the second half of the year because milk volumes fall seasonally.