Indicative net prices, EUR, ex VAT, single-bag quantity, EU delivery quoted separately. Verified 17 July 2026. Dairy protein is a traded commodity - confirm the current figure with a quote before you budget.
WPC 80 price per kg today
The short answer most buyers are looking for: WPC 80 Regular starts at €25.58/kg net and WPC 80 Instant at €30.14/kg net, at a minimum order of one bag. There is no price penalty for buying small and no annual volume commitment attached to that figure.
That is unusual in dairy protein trading. The conventional wholesale channel prices WPC 80 in full truckloads (24 t) or at best full pallets, and an SME asking for 100 kg is either refused or quoted a punitive small-lot premium. FDCM prices from stock in Warsaw, so the entry quantity is a bag - 15 kg for Regular, 20 kg for Instant.
| Product | Protein (d.b.) | Bag | MOQ | Price /kg net | Cost per kg of protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPC 80 Regular | min. 80% | 15 kg | 15 kg | €25.58 | €31.98 |
| WPC 80 Instant | min. 80% | 20 kg | 20 kg | €30.14 | €37.68 |
| WPI 90 Regular | min. 90% | 20 kg | 20 kg | €33.27 | €36.97 |
| WPC 70 / WPC 75 | 70-75% | 20 kg | 20 kg | on request | on request |
| WPC 35 | 34-36% | 25 kg | 25 kg | on request | on request |
Cost per kg of protein = price per kg ÷ protein content on a dry basis. This is the number that belongs in a formulation cost model - not the headline price per kg.
The number most buyers get wrong
- WPC 80 Instant costs €0.71 more per kg of delivered protein than WPI 90, despite the headline price being €3.13/kg lower.
- If you are instantising anyway, and lactose is not a functional requirement, WPI 90 can be the cheaper protein source on a per-gram basis.
- If you need the fat and lactose for mouthfeel, browning or gelation, WPC 80 is not substitutable and the comparison is irrelevant.
What actually drives the WPC 80 price
WPC 80 is not manufactured to order. It is a downstream product of cheese and casein production, which means its price is set by variables that have nothing to do with the protein market itself.
1. Cheese output sets the raw material supply
Liquid whey is a by-product. Roughly 9 litres of whey come off every kilogram of hard cheese produced. When EU cheese production contracts - because milk supply is tight, because the cheese margin is poor - whey volume falls with it, regardless of how much protein demand exists. Whey protein producers cannot simply increase output; they have to wait for the cheese plants.
2. Competition for the same whey stream
The same litre of liquid whey can be routed into sweet whey powder, demineralised whey (D70/D90) for infant formula, WPC 35, WPC 80, or further processed into WPI 90. Infant formula demand for demineralised whey is contractual, high-margin and inflexible, so it gets the first call on the stream. WPC 80 competes for what is left. When the infant nutrition segment is strong, WPC 80 availability tightens even with normal cheese output.
3. Protein concentration is the cost multiplier
Getting from liquid whey at roughly 0.6% protein to a powder at 80% protein means removing something like 99% of the input mass through ultrafiltration and diafiltration, then evaporating and spray-drying the retentate. Each protein percentage point costs membrane area, diafiltration water and thermal energy. This is why WPC 35 and WPC 80 are separated by far more than a 45-point protein difference in price.
4. Energy and the spray dryer
Spray drying is one of the more energy-intensive unit operations in food manufacturing. Gas and electricity prices feed into whey protein pricing with a lag of roughly one quarter. The 2022-2023 European energy shock was visible in WPC 80 quotations long after the spot gas price had normalised, because producers were still working through hedged contracts and rebuilt margin.
5. Currency and export pull
WPC 80 is a globally traded commodity. When the euro is weak against the dollar, EU-produced WPC 80 becomes cheaper for buyers in Asia, the Middle East and North America, export volume rises and the domestic EU price follows. A significant share of European whey protein leaves the continent, which means EU industrial buyers compete with export demand for tonnage produced in their own country.
6. Instantisation and format
The gap between Regular and Instant - €4.56/kg here - is not the cost of the lecithin. Lecithin at 0.3-0.5% is pennies. The gap is the re-agglomeration step: rewetting the powder in a fluid bed, applying the lecithin, re-drying, and accepting the yield loss and the reduced throughput on that line. You pay for a second pass through a dryer.
Get today's WPC 80 price for your quantity
Send us the grade, the volume and the delivery country. You get a firm price, current availability and an estimated delivery date within one business day. No account setup, no annual commitment.
Volume pricing: where the breaks actually are
The published figure is single-bag pricing. It falls as quantity rises, but not on a smooth curve - it steps down where a logistics or handling threshold is crossed.
| Quantity band | What changes | Typical effect on €/kg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bag (15-20 kg) | Parcel or groupage handling, picked individually | List price |
| ~200 kg | Half-pallet, handled as one unit | First discount step |
| ~500 kg | Full pallet, no re-picking, single label | Meaningful step down |
| 1 000 kg (1 t) | Multi-pallet, freight cost per kg falls sharply | Best per-kg economics for most SMEs |
| FTL (24 t) | Direct from producer, often on contract | Traded, quoted per shipment |
Two practical notes. First, the freight component often moves more than the goods component between the single-bag and half-pallet bands - if you are ordering 60 kg every three weeks, consolidating to 200 kg every ten weeks usually saves more on transport than on the protein. Second, mixed pallets count. If you also buy acid casein, skimmed milk powder or maltodextrin, combining them onto one pallet reaches the pallet band without forcing you to hold more WPC 80 than you can turn over inside its shelf life.
Price per kg is not landed cost
The quotation is DAP by default - delivered to your address, duty unpaid where applicable. Four items sit between the list price and what actually hits your cost accounting:
- Freight. Quoted per shipment against your postcode, not built into the per-kg figure. On a single bag to Portugal, freight can rival the goods value; on a pallet to Berlin it is a rounding error per kg.
- VAT. For B2B buyers inside the EU with a valid VAT number, reverse charge applies - we invoice without VAT and you self-account. There is no cash-flow drag.
- Yield. Bags are net-weight filled. Losses are in your process, not in the packaging, but a 2% dust and residue loss on transfer is real money at €25.58/kg and belongs in the model.
- Working capital. A 15 kg entry point means you can run a trial at roughly €384 of exposure instead of committing to a 24 t truck. That optionality has a value that the per-kg comparison never shows.
Why nobody publishes a reliable WPC 80 price history
Searches for a WPC 80 price index or historical chart run into a structural problem: there is no single quoted WPC 80. Price differs by protein content within the same nominal grade (an 80.4% batch and an 82.8% batch are both "WPC 80"), by fat, by heat treatment, by instantisation, by microbiological spec, by origin, by whether it is contract or spot, and by lot size. Published series such as those from the EU Milk Market Observatory or private reporting agencies track a defined spec at a defined lot size; they are useful directionally and useless as a substitute for a quote on your spec.
What is reliably true about the shape of the market: WPC 80 is more volatile than skimmed milk powder, it is seasonally softer in the spring flush when EU milk volume peaks and cheese output with it, and it responds to infant formula demand with a lag. If you need a defensible number for a tender or a costing exercise, ask for a written quote with a validity date rather than referencing an index.
How to lock a price
- Spot quote. Firm price, stated validity window, no obligation. Standard for one-off and trial purchases.
- Fixed quarterly pricing. For buyers with predictable volume, a price fixed for the quarter against an indicative offtake. Removes formulation-cost volatility from your P&L for the period.
- Call-off from a reserved lot. Price and batch fixed at agreement, delivery drawn down as you need it. Useful when your CoA has to stay constant across a production run but your warehouse cannot hold the tonnage.
Whichever route, the input we need is the same three lines: grade, quantity, delivery country. Send those and a price comes back within one business day.
WPC 80 price - FAQ
Because it is a different product from a commercial standpoint. A full-truckload price of 24 tonnes assumes you take the whole lot, arrange your own unloading, accept the producer's spec as offered, pay against contract terms and hold the inventory through its shelf life. Our price is for one 15 kg bag from stock, picked, documented with a batch CoA and delivered to your door in a few days. If you can genuinely absorb 24 tonnes of a single lot, buy the truck - it will be cheaper per kg. Most SMEs cannot, and the small-lot price is what makes the material accessible at all.
No. Prices are net, ex VAT, and freight is quoted per shipment against your postcode and quantity. This is deliberate - a per-kg price with freight baked in would overcharge buyers near the warehouse to subsidise buyers on the periphery. You get the goods price and the freight price separately so you can see both.
Quotes carry a stated validity window, typically short, because dairy protein moves. If the window lapses before you order, ask for a refresh - it may go either way.
Yes, but the mechanism is a fixed-price agreement rather than a discount off list. Give us an indicative annual or quarterly offtake and a target and we will tell you plainly whether it is workable.
Because 'WPC 80' names a protein minimum, not a specification. Two offers can differ in actual protein (80.2% vs 83%), fat, ash, lactose, heat class, microbiological limits, instantisation, origin, lot size, payment terms and whether a batch CoA is included. Before comparing two prices, compare the two specification sheets. The cheaper offer is frequently a different product.
At single-bag list, WPC 80 Regular works out to €25 580 per tonne - but nobody should buy a tonne at single-bag pricing. Ask for a quote at 1 000 kg and the figure will be materially lower. Tonne-level pricing is quoted, not published.
Buying at these prices requires a qualified source - see the profile of our WPC 80 supplier operation in Europe, including the qualification pack we provide.