CME cheese led the charge today, with blocks jumping to $2.2700 per pound, adding on four cents to reach a price not seen since June 2022. Barrels leapt to $2.2750 per pound, up 2.5 cents. Spot whey also climbed, reaching $0.5875 per pound, tacking on two cents.
July cheese production was pegged at 1.19 billion pounds, up 1.9% (+21.8 million pounds) year-over-year and 2.7% (+31 million pounds) from June. At the same time, butter production reached 162 million pounds, a 2.2% (+3.4 million pound) yearly gain but a drop of 3.8% (-6.3 million pounds) month-over-month. NDM manufacturers’ stocks declined to 184 million pounds, down 10.4% (-21.5 million pounds) year-over-year and -2.0% (-3.7 million pounds) month-over-month. Whey stocks totaled 63 million pounds, down 25.0% (-20.8 million pounds) from 2023 and -2.0% (-5.3 million pounds) from June.
US cheese consumption totaled 1.15 billion pounds in July, up 0.9% year-over-year. That brought total year-to-date usage to 7.93 billion pounds, up 0.3% on the year. Butter consumption also increased to 192 million pounds in July, 5.5% higher on the year. For the first seven months of 2024, the US consumed 1.26 billion pounds of butter, 2.8% higher than the same time period last year.
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