The latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction – event 207 – concluded earlier today with a slight reduction of 0.6% in the price index.
This follows on from a similar marginal fall of 0.5% at the previous event on February 20. However, each of the first three auctions of 2018, recorded increases.
- AMF index down 3.2%, average price US$6,245/MT;
- Butter index down 1.0%, average price US$5,280/MT;
- BMP index down 4.3%, average price US$1,959/MT;
- Ched index up 1.7%, average price US$3,759/MT;
- LAC index not available, average price not available;
- RenCas index up 2.2%, average price US$5,128/MT;
- SMP index up 5.5%, average price US$2,051/MT;
- WMP index down 0.8%, average price US$3,232/MT.
Interestingly, the strongest change in individual products was a 5.5% rise in the skimmed milk powder index.
The next biggest change was a 4.3% drop in buttermilk powder. Lactose was not available on the day; of the products that were on offer, all recorded price decreases except cheddar and skimmed milk powder.
Irish milk production sees 1.5% rise for January
Meanwhile, it recently emerged that domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers in the Republic of Ireland was estimated at 150.9 million litres for January 2018, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This was 1.5% above the corresponding 2017 figure, which amounted to 148.7 million litres for January of that year.
This is 5.8% higher than the 26.2 million litres sold for the corresponding period in 2017.
Source: Central Statistics Office
Comparing the January 2018 milk produce figures with those for January 2017 shows that the total milk sold for human consumption also increased by 2.8% to 45.6 million litres.
In addition, it was found that butter production was up 49.5% to 7,760t.