Reaching the mark of US$ 0.38 in recent months, the price of milk on the international market shows that it has overcome its crisis cycle. Experts also point out that a ton of powdered milk (which was sold for US$ 2 thousand at the worst time in 2016) is now worth over US$ 3.1 thousand.
Embrapa Gado de Leite analyst, Lorildo Stock, says that crises in the global dairy market are cyclical. “Usually there is one bad year for every two positive years, but the crisis we overcame lasted 30 months”, says the researcher, who adds: “until then, a negative period had not been recorded that lasted that long”.
According to IBGE researcher João César Rezende, in Brazil the crisis was motivated by the economic crisis and the high cost of inputs, resulting in a decline of 3.7% in production last year compared to 2015. “Brazilian production of milk decreasing is an unprecedented fact”, he highlights.
This domestic scenario, combined with attractive prices on the international market, stimulated the import of dairy products, and Brazil ended up importing 8% of its consumption. Now, however, external prices are on the rise – which is stimulating domestic production and could lead the sector to grow again at rates of 3% to 4% this year, according to Embrapa Gado de Leite researcher Glauco Carvalho.
Embrapa researchers project a new “design” of the sector in the country, with greater professionalization of the activity. production systems gaining scale, new management models and the adoption of technologies in genetics, nutrition, milk quality, etc. The next step, in the view of experts, would be to conquer foreign markets.
In Carvalho's view, to be an exporter, the country must have prices in line with the international market. “On average, our price remains higher than abroad. While in July people paid US$ 0.38 per liter abroad, here the product was sold for the equivalent of US$ 0.43”, he points out.
The researcher explains that this is due to the market protection in force in the country, combined with problems of regular supply. As a solution, he points to greater specialization of the herd, with the discarding of animals with the worst genetics. Remember that Brazil has the lowest corn and soybean production costs in the world, in addition to high-quality pastures, which gives good prospects for milk in the country.
Source: Agrolink
