Between cutbacks from China and an embargo by Russia, their imports dropped 16.3 billion pounds. Meanwhile, global milk supplies expanded. The big question is: How will U.S. processors re-balance their stocks of dairy powders?
Global dairy markets are cyclical, so as conditions turn next year, it may be more challenging for U.S. suppliers to defend the share they gained in 2013. USDEC's Alan Levitt identifies five things to keep an eye on that could shape the market outlook.
The tipping point, we can see clearly in retrospect, came in the summer of 2004.
We didn't notice it at the time, because U.S. markets were coming off record-high prices that spring, and in our alphabet-soup world, the industry was trying to figure out how to deal with CWT, bST and the rising CPI.