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The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) updated its trade database this week to include figures from May 2010.
Looking at the data is interesting because, everyone was told milk prices crashed because the export market for dairy dried up. Of particular concern was the crash of the milk powder market - nonfat dry milk (NFDM) and skim milk powder (SMP).
Total exports of dairy products are very high this year. The May 2010 dairy powder exports are 87% of May 2008. But, the "all milk" price is just 82% of May 2008.
The financial world is still very shaky. Credit is still a worry. So, my guess those with the power to put a little aside for a rainy day, are doing just that. Supply and demand alone, leave quite a few questions unanswered.
Yes the same old excuses of why milk prices are down just don't seem to work anymore on the people paying attention. The real game that is really played is keep the high prices for a short time period and the low prices over long time periods and use every old excuse to appease the farmers. Of course when our prices go up for that short time period our partners in this business will blame the farmers for the price increases because they will not borrow money to stay in business like we did.
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