Sustained high global demand for dairy products, rising purchasing power – particularly in Asia – and, at the same time, smaller increases in milk production: these are some of the reasons pointing to rising milk prices in the EU before the end of this year. At least that is the view of Philipp Götz from the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN), an international research and advisory network based in Kiel.

In his presentation at the “Kieler Milchtage” conference last week, he made it clear why the current slump in the milk market is not a permanent situation. He attributed this to unforeseeable and exceptional developments: “2025 will go down in the statistics as the year of the milk glut: Global raw milk production grew significantly above the long-term average of around 1.5%.” In north-western Europe, the increase was as high as 6.4%. Among other things, this was due to a combination of good forage availability and high milk and meat prices. “Revenues up, costs down – every cow was profitable,” Götz summarised.

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