Dairy products struggle to gain export traction

With lower prices and slumping volumes, November U.S. dairy product exports were valued at about $377.3 million, down 24% from the previous year and the lowest figure in nearly five years, according to Alan Levitt, with the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

Shipments of nonfat dry milk/skim milk powder (NDM/SMP) and lactose continued to track slightly higher than the previous year, but cheese and whey exports have fallen into a lower gear, and sales of butterfat, whole milk powder (WMP) and milk protein concentrate (MPC) have dwindled to negligible levels.

By volume, exporters moved 42,602 tons of NDM/SMP in November, up 1% from the year before. Almost half of November sales went to Mexico (21,273 tons), with exports to Peru a record-high 2,370 tons.

Most other categories continued the trends of prior months.

Cheese exports were 22,895 tons, down 7% from prior year. Volume has now trailed year-ago levels for 14 straight months.

Total whey exports were the lowest since July 2010, mostly due to a slowdown in buying from China, the largest U.S. customer.

In total, U.S. suppliers shipped 136,144 tons of milk powders, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose in November, down 7% from a year ago and down 4% from October (daily-average basis).

U.S. exports (on a total milk solids-basis) were equivalent to 12.7% of U.S. milk solids production in November, the lowest since January. Imports were equivalent to 4.0% of production for the month (see table).

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