Dn supermarkets, the price of butter is increasingly salty. The branded shopping basket The world concocted by the company Circana, supposed to scrutinize the evolution of inflation, proves it without ambiguity. In March, you had to pay 2.66 euros to afford 250 grams of national brand butter, an increase of 25% over one year. A gold-plated plate.
Not so for bulk industrial butter. Its course melts irresistibly, like snow in the spring sun. However, everyone remembers that, at the beginning of 2022, the Federation of Bakery and Pastry Companies shone the spotlight on butter. Its quotation exceeded 6,000 euros per ton. Once Candlemas passed, the price did not fall like a pancake, quite the contrary: it continued to soar and the churned cream was more and more handsomely paid. In the fall, it was even trading at nearly 7,300 euros per tonne, up 70% over one year.
Since then, it has begun an accelerated slide. “ Today, the price of a ton of industrial butter is close to 5,300 euros. The drop is significant, but we are still at high levels”, believes Benoît Rouyer, director of economic forecasting at the National Interprofessional Center for the Dairy Economy (Cniel). Kouign-amann makers are a little less vague in their souls.
Very high volatility
But butter is not the only industrial dairy product to take a nosedive. The price of milk powder is just as pulverized. “ At the start of 2022, skimmed milk powder was trading at nearly 4,400 euros per tonne. Today, the price is close to 2,600 euros per ton”, explains Mr. Rouyer. He explains this trend reversal as follows: “Buyers have been reassured about supply and Chinese demand has been less sustained in 2022, especially since its milk production has increased by 7% over this period. »
However, there is no immediate correlation between the prices of industrial dairy ingredients and the inflation of consumer products. In any case in France. The price of butter melts, except on the shelves. Conversely, in Germany, he does the yoyo. The brochure has benefited, since February, from a 20% discount in stores – after, it is true, an increase of 40% in 2022, according to data from Cniel.
This very high volatility is reflected in the price of milk paid to the producer. Hence, sometimes, a touch of annoyance among French breeders, when they compare the remuneration of the ton of milk on both sides of the Rhine. Thus, in 2022, they received an average of 422 euros, when their German colleagues received 580 euros in the fall.
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