The New Zealand Dairy Cooperative Fonterra has lowered its expectation for milk deliveries today. It is already the second prognosis with a lower expectation, as it is still too dry and the soil moisture and thus the feed quality has decreased significantly.
Fonterra now expects a delivery volume of 1,480 million kgMS in the 2017/18 marketing year. That's 4% less than delivered in the 2016/17 season. In November, the estimate for this season was still at 1,525 million kgMS.
Should there be a smaller delivery volume, milk prices could rise again worldwide. Prices have come under pressure in the past two months as milk deliveries worldwide were higher. New Zealand is the world's largest exporter of dairy products.
It is expected that the dry weather conditions in Oceania will continue. The predicted precipitation should not change the tense situation, says a Fonterra company spokesman.
Text: HANSA Derivatives Trading GmbH / 
