Milk powders and whey are doing the lifting in dairy. Across the 42 indexed materials in the group, figures dated 4 November 2026 show a mean move of +2.2% over three months and -2.5% over one year, with 23 up and 19 down. The group lists 45 materials in five families: dairy products, cheeses, butter and cream, egg products, and yoghurts and white cheeses.
Whey protein is up 27.6% over three months and 91.7% over a year, skimmed milk powder 18.6% and 46.3%, and whole milk powder 15.0%. News on 17 October reported soaring whey protein prices in Europe, with demand from sports nutrition, yoghurt, infant formula and GLP-1 users.
By family, dairy products lead at +9.1% over three months and +23.7% over a year, with eight of nine indexed materials higher. Cheeses (+0.9%) and the butter and cream family, listed as Dairy (+0.8%), are close to flat, as are yoghurts and white cheeses (+0.1%). Egg products are the only family down, by 0.7%.
Over one year, fats show the steepest falls. Anhydrous milk fat is 29.6% lower than a year ago and salted sweet cream butter 27.5%. Four butters, including churned butter, are down 26.0% on the year yet gained 3.7% over three months. On 6 October, German retailers were reported to be withdrawing butter price cuts as supplies tightened and costs rose.
Three-month declines are small. The largest, -2.9%, is shared by Gorgonzola and the egg yolk lines, among them free-range egg yolk and barn egg yolk. Cheddar slipped 2.3% and is 25.0% lower on the year. Egg is up 2.3% over three months but down 9.9% over a year; on 22 October, Polish quotations showed cage eggs much cheaper than a year earlier.