Prices of dairy products fell in the first sale on Fonterra Cooperative Group’s GlobalDairyTrade platform for 2012, paced by whole and skim milk powder.
The GDT-TWI Price Index fell 0.7 percent compared to the last sale two weeks ago.
The average winning price declined to US$3,654 a metric tonne from US$3,688 a tonne in the Dec. 20 sale. The price of whole milk powder declined 0.8 percent to US$3,554.
Commodity prices fell through much of 2011 as investors fretted the impact of Europe’s debt crisis could have in slowing global growth. The region is expected to sink into recession this year as leaders argue about the response to the crisis.
Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Index fell almost 7 percent in 2011 and was recently up 2.6 percent.
The average winning price for skim milk powder fell 0.6 percent to US$3,269 a metric tonne.
Anhydrous milk fat fell 5.1 percent to US$3,982 a tonne and butter milk powder rose 9.3 percent to US$3,585 a tonne.
Cheddar rose 0.2 percent to US$3,598 a tonne and milk protein concentrate gained 2.3 percent to US$5,986 a tonne. Rennet casein declined 4 percent to US$7,796 a tonne.
There were 114 winning bidders over 13 rounds, out of 152 participating bidders. The number of qualified bidders rose to 513 from 504 in the last sale two weeks ago.
(BusinessDesk)
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6 Comments
dairy bad news for health?
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/harvard-declares-dairy-not-part-of-hea…
regards
Harvard’s nutrition experts did not pull punches, declaring that the university’s food guide was based on sound nutrition research and more importantly, not influenced by food industry lobbyists.
Given that Harvard's advice is the opposite of what NZ nutritionalists proffer, does that suggest our nutritionalists are influenced by food industry lobbyists?
Does anyone know how much of NZ's nutrition research is funded by Fonterra and/or government?
Colin, people already know it. This from the California milk producers;
FLUID MILK SALES CONTINUE TOWARDS 25 YEAR LOW: (by J. Kaczor) This is not how the final story for this year should end, but the long, sad story about declining fluid milk sales in the U.S. simply has not changed as the year progressed. The monthly decline below the same month a year earlier that began with March, 2010, shows no sign of stopping. CDFA’s November report for California (-2.7%) and preliminary numbers for fluid milk usage in federal milk orders (-3.3%) add up to a total decline in fluid milk sales for the month of 143 million lbs below last November. The total loss of Class 1 sales for the U.S. for this year, provided December’s sales reflect November’s pattern, will be close to 1.2 billion lbs.Most of Harvard's research money in health and medicine comes from contestable public money (the NIH) charitable research foundations, (e.g. the Cancer Society, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and private bequests. Any money that does come from business or private individuals has numerous caveats placed around it, such as acknowledging that Harvard will use that money to fund research that is fully independent. Harvard has worked very hard over the centuries to develop the reputation it has, and it guards and maintains it to the very best of its ability.
Given that Harvard's advice is the opposite of what NZ nutritionalists proffer, does that suggest our nutritionalists are influenced by food industry lobbyists? Does anyone know how much of NZ's nutrition research is funded by Fonterra and/or government?
Our nutrition geniuses in Otago and more latterly at the Albany campus of Massey, just follow whatever the US Dept of Agriculture does. It was the USDA that put together the food pyramid. Where was that done? In the mid west. What do they grow in the mid west? Wheat and corn. What did the food pyramid suggest you eat the most of for maximum health? Carbohydrates, e.g., bread. And what was the next thing you should be eating the most of? Meat and diary. This all from the US Dept. of Agriculture. Funny that.
Harvard, led mainly but not solely by Prof. Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health, had being rubbishing the food pyramid as utterly unscientific (because there wasn’t much science behind it) and had being doing so for years. And many of the senior academic nutritionists in the US also knew it and were equally appalled with it. They knew all too well the food politics behind it. Willet himself was also concerned that it was driving the obesity epidemic in the US. Anyway their concerns eventually paid off and they got the food pyramid withdrawn, but it is now replaced with a new ‘ food plate’ approach.
Meanwhile, back in our own august institutions of nutritional learning and amongst our various nutritional professionals involved in providing food advice, the US Dept. of Agriculture’s food pyramid was held up as the soundest of scientific advice on human nutrition and was paraded up and down the country at length. Of real concern to me was that not one of these geniuses seemed to know the story behind its formation, or could spot the fact that it was wrong. Laziness.
And now you have these very same people, and they are still there, who want to introduce a fat tax and a sugar tax, to stop obesity in NZ. Yet there is no evidence that such an approach will work. Is this their original idea? Of course it’s not. They are doing exactly the same as they did with the food pyramid and uncritically and lazily adopting ideas from overseas without putting any original thought or research into it. This is pure laziness, but they still have all their hands out for the big fat salary.
Food politics, and fashion in nutrition is a major issue and a major problem, not only out there in the wider community, but also within professional nutritional bodies and universities, and I can only encourage people to be very very careful and double check where the nutritional information they get here in NZ actually comes from.
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