Cream income to a liquid processor

Updated 20 December 2024

This information shows the trends in incomes for liquid processors selling surplus cream. As little liquid milk is now sold as whole milk, all liquid processors generate surplus cream, which has a value. Some is sold to supermarkets, while some is sold in bulk to manufacturers of other products.

Please note the December 2024 calculation uses rolled data from Defra due to delayed data publication.

We will update the December 2024 calculation in January 2025 once new data has been released. 

The price indicates the trend in incomes, rather than an absolute value. The actual income effect and a precise increase in ppl will be difficult to obtain as this requires knowledge, on a daily or monthly basis, of the following:

• From January 2021, the bulk cream wholesale price is a weighted average of prices agreed on spot trades as reported in the AHDB wholesale price portal.
• Please note; the published price and the actual price may not match as this depends on a number of factors, including the proportion sold on the spot market as well as the proportion sold under long-term contracts.
• The cream income is based on the excess cream between the rolling butterfat average over the previous 12 months, and the average level of fat in liquid milk sold through the retail market.
• The value of the excess butterfat is then calculated on the basis of a litre of cream at 40%.
• Calculation does not include waste in the manufacturing process.
• The split of purchases of whole, semi-skimmed, skimmed and low fat milk is calculated to estimate the level of butterfat required in the retail sector. This is updated biannually with data from Kantar Worldpanel.

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