# Dairy outlook: COVID-19 lockdowns impact cheese and butter

> Maxum Foods and Cornell economist Andrew Novakovic say COVID-19 lockdowns are shifting dairy demand away from cheese and hitting small farms and processors hard. Specialty cheese plants are closing while cheddar plants are full and fluid milk sales are expected to rise 10-15%.

- Date: 2020-04-08 · published 2020-04-08T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: macro · region US · magnitude medium
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/53640-dairy-outlook-covid-19-lockdowns-impact-cheese-and-butter
- Commodities: [Milk (Class III)](https://feedsoft.ai/c/MILK.md)

## Why it matters

Weaker foodservice-driven cheese demand and rising surplus milk are bearish for milk prices, with downside risk for dairy-based feed ingredients like whey and DDGS demand.

## Read by commodity

- MILK: bearish ▼

## Similar past events

| Commodity | Date | Event | 5-day % | 20-day % |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MILK | 2020-08-31 | [Uncertainty due to COVID-19 lowers dairy product demand](https://feedsoft.ai/events/51628-uncertainty-due-to-covid-19-lowers-dairy-product-demand.md) | -13.7% | -17.3% |
| MILK | 2017-04-20 | [Dairy price outlook falters, remains better than 2016](https://feedsoft.ai/events/71639-dairy-price-outlook-falters-remains-better-than-2016.md) | -0.2% | +2.5% |
| MILK | 2020-04-28 | [COVID-19 continues to hammer dairy prices](https://feedsoft.ai/events/5177-covid-19-continues-to-hammer-dairy-prices.md) | -12.8% | -7.6% |
| MILK | 2020-03-25 | [COVID-19 pandemic rocks dairy markets \| Capital Press](https://feedsoft.ai/events/54272-covid-19-pandemic-rocks-dairy-markets-capital-press.md) | -0.2% | -17.5% |
| MILK | 2020-04-08 | [Vilsack: Dairy exports improved before coronavirus - Brownfield Ag News](https://feedsoft.ai/events/5744-vilsack-dairy-exports-improved-before-coronavirus-brownfield-ag-news.md) | -2.5% | -18.1% |

## Sources

- foodprocessing.com.au: https://www.foodprocessing.com.au/content/business-solutions/news/dairy-outlook-covid-19-lockdowns-impact-cheese-and-butter-882083603

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Data from Feedsoft AI (https://feedsoft.ai/). For information only; not investment advice.