Report 13 – Released on March 28, 2019

WESTERN OVERVIEW:

Early indicators of current milk production in parts of Western Europe identify both: (1) production seasonally increasing; as well as (2) production being higher than at this point last year. Hope abounds that current results are a harbinger that recent concerns over lower milk production outcomes in January, related to unusually cold weather, will not thwart overall milk production increases for 2019.

The EU dairy industry is quite confident that, through longstanding export customer relations, and many favorable trade treaties, whatever dairy products can be manufactured in Western Europe, not needed for internal markets, can be exported. Thus, the more milk produced in 2019 the more profits for dairy manufacturers, is considered to be paradigmatic expectation for the Western European dairy industry.

EU milk production during January 2019, 12.9 million MT, was 1.4 percent lower than January 2018 according to Eurostat. This was an unexpected outcome. Atypical January weather was blamed. The table below shows data for some top milk producing EU countries.

CHEESE PRODUCTION CHANGE
     January 2019/January 2018

     COUNTRY      Percent   2019 MT
     Germany       +3.4     201,810
     France        -1.8     143,820
     Italy         +2.2      91,850
     Netherlands  -10.3      67,600
EU cheese exports during January 2019, 67,991 MT, increased 8 percent from January 2018 according to Eurostat. 
Cheese exports for January were 8.8 percent of production.

EU CHEESE EXPORTS ą TOP 3 DESTINATIONS

     Metric Tons January 2019
     Percent change 2019/2018

     DESTINATION      MT        PERCENT CHANGE

     United States    9,746     +12
     Japan            8,948     +41
     Switzerland      5,043      +7

EASTERN OVERVIEW:

Poland and Romania are stars in terms of EU milk production during January 2019. Milk production in Poland increased 3.2 percent from January 2018 according to Eucolait. Romania did even better, increasing 6.0 percent.

Information for the period March 18 – 29, 2019, issued biweekly.

Published by:
     Dairy Market News - Madison, WI
     Eric Graf, 608.422.8590
     Email: eric.graf@ams.usda.gov

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