Milk prices are soaring on the expectation that a tight market will be hit by further disruption to fertiliser and feed supplies and inflationary pressures following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bad weather in New Zealand, the US and Australia had already combined with rocketing gas prices and pandemic-related supply chain disruptions to put pressure on milk producers in the five biggest exporters before the war.
Combined milk production in New Zealand — known as the “Saudi Arabia of milk” because it controls 35 per cent of global exports — the EU, Australia, the US and Argentina fell 1.7 per cent in January compared with the previous year, down according to commodity broker StoneX.