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UK and France swapping places on EU MCVE rankings
Wednesday, 14 July 2021
By Kat Jack
Our EU Milk for Cheese Value Equivalent (MCVE) measure shows how the UK is performing against other EU countries, when it comes to getting value from making milk into cheese. Although it is a very broad estimate, with it we can see some distinct trends in country performance. In particular, the UK MCVE did overtake France through the first half of the year.
The two countries were trending in opposite directions from December 2020 through to March 2021 – UK upwards and France downwards. In December 2020, the UK MCVE was valued at 31.94ppl and France at 32.94ppl. By March 2021 this had shifted to 32.96ppl for the UK, and just 31.54ppl for France. This shift will in part be due to the different products each country produces. The UK MCVE is based on mild cheddar, which has been gradually increasing in price. France is instead based on its main cheese, Emmental, which dropped in value through the first quarter of 2021. Emmental prices have since picked back up. The latest figures, for June, put the two prices within 0.24ppl of each other.
The Gouda price has performed strongly so far in 2021, keeping the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany at the top of the board. That said, the UK was on par with Germany in March and April 2021, so it has potential to compete when the markets are in its favour.
We have seen in the UK how input cost inflation over the last year is adding pressure to processor margins. The EU is likely to be facing at least some of the same pressures. Last year we revised the EU MCVE calculation to reflect the latest costs for each country, but costs have increased since that revision. As with the UK, these increases in costs should be kept in mind when considering the EU figures.
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