US butter is experiencing a resurgence and trade opportunities await

Anhydrous Milk Fat (Butter oil)

Dairy

United States

Market & Price Trends

Innovation & Technology

Published Nov 9, 2023

Tridge summary

US butterfat exports had their best year since 2013, with sales rising 43% in 2022, driven by strong gains to Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Bahrain. The growth in butterfat production has outpaced milk production in the last decade, and genetic selection for specific traits has contributed to this increase. While the US is a significant market for butter manufacturers, there are export opportunities if US producers can compete on price, although high domestic butterfat prices pose a challenge.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

Strong domestic demand has long meant that the US doesn’t export much of its butterfat. But with strong butterfat imports, trading abroad could offer new avenues to American producers. According to US Dairy Council data from February 2023, in 2022 US suppliers had their best year for butterfat exports since 2013. Sales rose 43% to 81,721mt, led by triple-digit gains to Canada and Mexico. Shipments to Canada more than doubled (+18,345mt), while exports to Mexico grew more than four-fold (+11,173mt). There were also strong increases to South Korea (+153%, +5,253mt ) and Bahrain (+38%, +2,457mt). For dairy farmers, while some of them face supply caps on milk, there isn’t such a limit constraining the supply of solids shipped from each farm, including butterfat. According to an analysis by CoBank lead economist for dairy Corey Geiger, butterfat production has also outpaced milk in the last decade in growth terms, with a 15% gain for milk and 27% for butterfat. Feed and genetic ...

Source: Dairyreporter