AGRO PERSPECTIVE «AGRO+ MILK UKRAINE #44 December 2, 2010.
No significant changes occurred in the Ukrainian market of dairy products last week. The level of trading activity of domestic operators and exporters remains rather low.
The majority of dairy products are exported in small batches due to that fact that the world market considers the domestic foodstuffs non-competitive.
Prices for all types of dairy goods remained unchanged during the reporting period.
According to estimates, there are about 6,000 MT of butter and 10,000–12,000 MT of milk powder in the country’s storage facilities; in other words, the reserves of whole-milk products are sufficient to restrain prices for them in the near 1.5–2 months in spite of the seasonal factor.
The WMP stock is small. However, since this is an unclaimed article, it is not expected to grow in price. The production of cheese has fallen significantly. For this reason the stock of whey is small and this can prompt the growth in price.
SMP
Within this week domestic market high-quality SMP offer prices remained at UAH22–25 per kg (low-quality — UAH21–22 per kg), same as within last week.
As of this week, SMP export prices ranged within US$2,450–2,500 per MT compared with US$2,400–2,600 per MT last week.
WMP
Within reporting week domestic and export WMP prices remained at UAH35–37 per kg and US$3,800 per MT respectively.
BUTTER
Within this week butter 72.5% fat domestic market offer prices made up UAH39–41.5 per kg.
Ukrainian butter is exported in slight volumes and mainly in packs. Export has become unattractive because butter 72.5% fat average export price should have already risen to US$5,000 per MT. However, it has no sense to sell butter at this price.
CHEESES
As to Ukrainian traders/producers data, within reporting week domestic market demand for cheese (as well as all other dairy products) has somewhat slackened.
Within this week cheeses 50% fat domestic market offer prices ranged within UAH43–45 per kg; it is to be admitted, there were rather large spreads between prices of same kind of cheese depending on the quality, producer popularity, and sale region.
As of this week, domestic market offer prices for lower quality cheeses (that is, cheese products) were UAH34–36 per kg. Within reporting week cheese export prices remained at US$5,500–5,600 per MT, unchanged against previous week.
WHEY
Within reporting week, home market whey prices made up UAH6.8–7.1 per kg.
Within this week whey export offer prices made up US$850 per MT.
In particular, within this week domestic market demineralized whey prices were in the range of UAH8.2–8.5 per kg; demineralized whey export price ranged within US$940–1,000 per MT.
CASEIN
Within reporting week domestic casein market situation remained the same. As of this week, there was actually no domestic market casein trade.
Within this week domestic market casein prices fluctuated within UAH59–62 per kg.
There was no casein export within this week. As of this week, casein export offer prices ranged within US$7,600–7,700 per MT.
Ukrainian dairy products’ export prices (US$ per MT)
