News

Cheese prices: Steady as she goes, analyst says

April 10, 2005

CHICAGO — Modest trading activity at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange throughout early April has cheese prices slipping lower — but not terribly low.

Block market prices closed at $1.58 per pound on April 8, and analyst Jerry Dryer doesn't believe they'll decline much further than a few cents, if at all, in the coming days.

"I don't expect to see blocks move below $1.55," Dryer wrote in the most recent edition of his weekly Dairy & Food Market Analyst newsletter. "The fundamentals dictate a market at or above that level."

A year ago, blocks cost $2.12 per pound.

Retail cheese sales remain strong, Dryer added, and perhaps more important for the pizza business, "mozzarella cheese production was up 3.6 percent on top of a 9.6-percent gain during Feb '04."

Solid comparable-store sales gains reported recently by Papa John's — as well as positive sales sentiments industry-wide among pizza providers — appear to build a case for continued strong mozzarella demand.