DairyCo

MCVE

Published 27 January 12

Milk for Cheese Value Equivalent (MCVE)

In January:

• Wholesale prices for butter fell by £100/tonne (3.3%) to £2,900/tonne. 
• Wholesale prices for mild and mature Cheddar remained stable at £2,925/tonne and £3,200/tonne respectively.
• The price of Whey powder increased by £3/tonne (0.4%) to £822/tonne*.
• As a result of price changes, MCVE decreased by 0.06ppl (0.2%) over the month to 32.67ppl. The January 2012 figure is 2.30ppl (7.6%) more than the previous year. 
• AMPE fell by 0.92ppl (3.1%) over the month to an average of 29.0ppl.  This gives MCVE a 3.67ppl (12.8%) premium over AMPE for the month.

 * The prices shown for whey powder relate to average exchange rates for the first 26 days of the month

For more information on AMPE click here.

For information on how MCVE is calculated please see MCVE Help sheet. 

It must be stressed that different factories will have different efficiency and cost levels and do not just make mild Cheddar. Therefore the MCVE has not been formulated to be the price that processors should pay farmers for milk for cheese, but merely a benchmark of value that can be used to compare against changes in milk prices.