Milk Powders, Butter, AMF, Ghee & Cheese

Milk powders are the dairy trade's shipping form: milk with the water taken out, bought by plants that put it back. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers three powders: skimmed milk powder (SMP; HS 0402.10), sold at 1.5% milkfat maximum in low, medium and high heat classes set by the whey protein nitrogen index; whole milk powder (WMP; HS 0402.21), sold at 26% or 28% milkfat; and fat-filled milk powder (FFMP; HS 1901.90), a blend of skimmed milk solids and 26-28% vegetable fat that is classified as a food preparation rather than a milk powder. The compositional floor is Codex: CXS 207-1999 for SMP and WMP (milk protein at least 34% of solids-non-fat, water 5% maximum) and CXS 251-2006 for the skimmed milk and vegetable fat blend; the ADPI Extra Grade and Standard Grade limits on moisture, titratable acidity, solubility index, scorched particles, plate count and coliforms are the grading reference most contracts borrow, with antibiotic residues and melamine written into the certificate of analysis. The 2024 export declarations put SMP at USD 8.24 billion, led by the USA at 745,000 MT, New Zealand at 441,000 MT, Germany at 266,000 MT and France at 238,000 MT, and WMP at USD 9.11 billion, led by New Zealand at 1.37 million MT, Uruguay at 153,000 MT and Argentina at 112,000 MT.

The buyers are recombining plants making reconstituted, UHT, evaporated and condensed milk; bakeries, biscuit, chocolate and confectionery makers; ice-cream and beverage plants; and distributors and packers who repack 25 kg bags into consumer tins and sachets. The 2024 import declarations show China, Algeria, Mexico, Indonesia and the Philippines as the largest SMP importers and China, Algeria, Brazil and Saudi Arabia as the largest WMP importers. Food-grade and feed-grade powder are separate products on separate certificates. All three powders move in 25 kg multiwall kraft bags with a polyethylene inner liner, about 18-24 MT to a 20-ft container, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms with container freight quoted through the lines and forwarders. The documents are set per destination: a dairy health certificate from the origin authority, a halal certificate from a certifier the importing country accepts, a certificate of origin, and the importer's import permit or registration where one is required, with fat-filled powder labelled to the destination's rules on dairy names. Dairy fats and cheese are brokered on the same basis. Unsalted butter (HS 0405.10) trades at 82% milkfat and 16% moisture in 25 kg blocks shipped frozen; anhydrous milk fat (HS 0405.90) at 99.8% milkfat with free fatty acids at 0.3% and peroxide value at 0.3 meq O2/kg maximum under Codex CXS 280-1973, in nitrogen-flushed 210 kg drums, with butteroil and ghee at 99.6%; low-moisture and IQF mozzarella (HS 0406.10) and cheddar for processing in 20 kg blocks (HS 0406.90) are specified with microbial coagulant, fermentation-produced chymosin or halal-certified rennet for halal markets; and processed cheese (HS 0406.30) moves in shelf-stable tins, with cream cheese in chilled bulk packs. At the Global Dairy Trade event of 15 September 2026 butter averaged USD 4,760/MT, AMF USD 5,739/MT, cheddar USD 4,075/MT and mozzarella USD 3,992/MT, and EEX butter futures settle against an index of butter price assessments in Germany, France and the Netherlands. For Saudi Arabia the exporter is registered with the SFDA as a foreign establishment and the product is registered through the importer's SFDA account.