World wholesale prices

Updated 16 April 2026

This price series looks at the average wholesale prices of certain dairy products from the EU, Oceania and the USA. It aims to provide an overview of global wholesale price movements which can affect prices closer to home.

N.B. This page has not been updated with the latest US data for SMP and cheese due to the unavailability of USDA data. The US butter pricing source has been replaced with CLAL.

EU

The growth in momentum of milk deliveries continued in the EU supported by low input prices, good forage quality and elevated milk prices for most of 2025. More recently, strong milk supplies have been pressurising markets.

However, in March wholesale prices of dairy products continued the uptrend. Butter prices moved upwards with average price increasing by 4.8%. Average price of SMP saw the biggest change increasing by 12.2% followed by WMP, which witnessed an increase of 6.5% in its average price.

The average price of cheese dropped by 1.3% in March according to the Milk Market Observatory.

Oceania

Milk deliveries in Oceania finished 2025 on a strong note and the positive momentum has rolled into 2026. New Zealand continued to see strong milk flows, up by 2% in January whilst Australian milk volumes recorded an increase of 1.5% compared to previous year after being in the negative territory in 2025. However uncertain weather conditions will limit upside movement.

Average prices of dairy products continued the uptrend with SMP noticing the largest increase of 17.7% month-on-month. This was followed by butter recording an increase of 14.7%. WMP and cheese increased by 4.7% and 3.2%, respectively in the month of March.

Table 1. World wholesale prices for butter

Table 2. World wholesale prices for SMP

Table 3. World wholesale prices for WMP

Table 4. World wholesale prices for Cheddar cheese

Source: USDA

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