Exporters moved 42,602t of NDM/SMP in November, up 1% from the year before. This brought the year-to-date total to 513,536t, slightly ahead of 2014’s pace. Almost half of November sales went to Mexico (21,273t). In addition, exports to Peru were a record-high 2370t. Sales to Southeast Asia were up 14% in November, but year-to-date shipments were still off 12% from 2014.
Exports of lactose were up 15% in November, with gains to most major destinations.
Most other categories continued the trends of prior months.
Cheese exports were 22,895t, down 7% from prior year. Volume has now trailed year-ago levels for 14 straight months. Shipments to Mexico were up 5%, but this was more than offset by significant declines in sales to South Korea (-35%) and Japan (-20%).
Total whey exports were just 30,308t, the lowest since July 2010. In the last three months, dry whey exports averaged less than 12,000t per month – a significant drop from the pace of the previous four years, when dry whey exports averaged nearly 20,000t a month. In 2015, dry whey exports will be the lowest since 2004.
WPC exports were down 5% in the first 11 months of the year. WPC exports had increased six years in a row prior to 2015. WPI exports, on the other hand, will finish with a record high in 2015, though volumes have dropped significantly in the second half of the year. In the July-November period, WPI exports were down 18% versus the prior year.
Whey export declines are mostly due to a slowdown in buying from China, the largest US customer. November whey sales to China were the lowest in six years, and less than half of the monthly volume posted in the second quarter of this year. Exports to Mexico also were lower in 2015 (-29% year-to-date), while sales to Southeast Asia were off 6%.
Butterfat exports were just 1125t in November, down 59%. Shipments to the Middle East/North Africa region were only 26t – a sharp contrast to the 5000t/month volumes shipped for most of 2013-14. For the year, butterfat exports were on track to finish with their lowest total since 2006. Among other products, November exports of milk protein concentrate (-58%), WMP (-73%) and fluid milk (-5%) trailed year-ago levels.
In total, US suppliers shipped 136,144t of milk powders, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose in November, down 7% from a year ago and down 4% from October (daily-average basis).
US exports (on a total milk solids basis) were equivalent to 12.7% of US milk solids production in November, the lowest since January. Imports were equivalent to 4% of production for the month.
Alan Levitt is vice-president of communications and market analysis at USDEC and reports on trends in global dairy markets.
