Kerry Group is holding its September milk price at 26c/L, a spokesperson for Kerry Group has said.
Kerry Group this week decided to hold the September milk price at 26c/L – the same price as its August milk price.
It is the second processor to hold its milk price after Lakeland Dairies announced it was holding its September milk price at 26.25c/L.
Lakeland Dairies cut its August milk price by 0.75c/L to 26.25c/L.
Ornua PPI falls for the sixth consecutive month
The Ornua Purchase Price Index (PPI), a monthly indicator of market returns on dairy products, fell marginally by 0.6 of a point in September.
This is down from 91.2 points in August, which was also down marginally from July (91.8 points).
Earlier this year Ornua saw it’s PPI for March hit 100 points up 2.5 points from February levels.
Compared to September 2014, the PPI index is down from 111.6 points, the latest fall represents the sixth consecutive fall in 2015.
Source: Ornua
Milk Markets
Meanwhile, milk markets are expected to tighten in the first half of 2016, as low milk prices in New Zealand and further price falls elsewhere put the brakes on milk production, according to Rabobank Global Strategist Tim Hunt.
He said in that milk production appears to have continued to expand faster than demand in recent months in Rabobank’s Dairy Quarterly Q3 2015.
The EU was the key driver of supply growth during the period, as investment timed to coincide with the removal of quotas came online however, according to Rabobank, most regions continued to expand production, it said.
Ireland set to import record levels of milk in 2015
The Republic of Ireland is set to import a record level of milk in 2015, according to the Chairman of the National Agency, Denis Murphy.
Speaking at the launch of a new IFA Liquid Milk handbook recently, Murphy also said the State is going to have record levels of milk production in 2015.
He also said the milk composition will be the highest ever with butter fats exceeding 4% for the first time and protein 3.5% for the first time. He said a lot of this is arising from genetics and good farm management.
However, according to Murphy we are also going to have a record volume of milk imports for both manufacturing in the State and liquid milk this year with about 600m litres of milk coming in from Northern Ireland in the current year.