Butter is now trading at 8,075 euros per ton. German market expert predicts further increases in butter and milk prices well into 2025.

8,075 euros for a ton of butter is the highest ever. But if you ask Dr. Olaf Zinke, who is a market expert for the German agricultural media, Agrarheute, we have not reached the top. He points to several factors:

First, there is a shortage of milk because more farmers hold back on supplying the same volumes of milk, or more, than they used to.

The lower weigh-in is reinforced by the spread of bluetongue in several EU countries, which  both negatively impacts milk yields in the herds affected and prevents the trade in cattle – which for some countries is a prerequisite for stable milk production.

Another explanation is that the milk’s content of fat and protein has been decreasing with the result that there are not the same valuable substances to process as before.

According to Olaf Zinke, the high prices will most likely continue until Christmas, and at the earliest in the first quarter of 2025, prices could start to fall.

– But it is uncertain to me how much prices will fall. The milk flows to where the value is best obtained. Right now, it’s butter, he underscores.

Read more on Agrarheute here