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Dairy prices reflect export activity

A market advisor says the dairy price rollercoaster remains a sign of on-and-off export sales.

Katie Burgess with Ever.ag tells Brownfield the cheese market is one example. “The volume of barrels trading on the exchange picked up this week which tends to be a telltale sign that hey, maybe those spot cheese exports have dried up.”

Burgess says new data confirms the correlation between dairy prices and export sales. “Back at the end of 2023, prices were really low. We got new trade data out that showed hey, sure enough, after some low prices, we had some pretty solid cheese exports during the month of January. Our prices went higher and it seems like those exports dried up and our markets went tumbling lower again here over the past week.”

Burgess thinks the worst of the dairy prices are behind us in January but says it’s hard to tell if they will get much better.