“Volatility is always driven by an imbalance in the marketplace between supply and demand. Clearly whatever happens in the overall dairy market will have implications on the whey and lactose sectors,” says Tage Affertsholt of the consultancy 3A Business Consulting. “The fact that Russia will now more than likely displace 250,000MT of European cheese with products from other parts of the world, will have a significant impact on pricing in a European context,” he adds.