Rebalancing Production Can Speed Dairy Market Recovery

A dairy industry economist says rebalancing production can speed up market recovery.

National Milk Producers Federation chief economist Peter Vitaliano says government support for dairy producers to reduce production in the coming months can speed dairy’s recovery from coronavirus-driven price declines. He said a unified, collective government action, “would probably be the best and most effective and speediest way of rebalancing supply and demand.”

The comments were included in an NMPF podcast released Tuesday.

Production balancing is part of the NMPF and International Dairy Foods Association plan for dairy assistance presented to the Department of Agriculture last week. Current dairy supply exceeds demand by at least 10%, and could worsen as supply increases to seasonal" peaks and consumers remain under “shelter in place” orders. NMPF, along with IDFA, urge USDA to “use as many tools as possible, as quickly as possible,” to bridge the supply/demand gap, as part of their recommendations to USDA.

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