Milk Futures Lead More Popular Commodities

When it comes to big gainers, milk outgained gold, oil and other more popular futures contracts in 2011. Milk futures rose about 35.7 percent in price in 2011 to close at 18.77 cents per pound. That compares to an 11.7 percent rise in the price of gold and a 10 percent rise in crude oil prices. According to CNN, – it also blows away the more modest gains of the higher profile food futures, like pork bellies, corn and coffee.

However, the milk futures price doesn’t represent that gallon of milk consumers purchase at their grocery store. Instead, it represents a class of milk that is typically powdered or condensed and used in production of other products such as cheese. Milk futures cover just a little more than half of the 195-billion pounds of milk produced in the United States annually.

The Consumer Price Index shows a 9.8-pecent rise in the price of the liquid milk consumer purchased over the12 months ending in November.