The latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction saw the overall price index return to positive figures, after two consecutive decreases.

The price index reported an increase of 0.3% at today’s GDT event, August 5. This follows on from decreases of 0.4% and 1.6% at the two most recent auctions.

The last time an increase was reported was on July 18, when the price index rose by just 0.2%. Prior to that, two consecutive decreases of 0.4% on July 4 and 0.8% on June 20 were recorded.

At today’s event there were decreases reported across the indices for butter milk powder (BMP), skimmed milk powder (SMP) and whole milk powder (WMP). The price index for cheddar rose by 2.5%, while the butter price index jumped by 3.8%.

Key Results:
  • AMF index up 3.6%, average price US$6,402/MT;
  • Butter index up 3.8%, average price US$5,954/MT;
  • BMP index down 10.1%, average price US$2,026/MT;
  • Ched index up 2.5%, average price US$4,118/MT;
  • LAC index up 5.1%, average price US$791/MT;
  • RenCas index up 1.2%, average price US$6,316/MT;
  • SMP index down 1.2%, average price US$1,944/MT;
  • WMP index down 1.6%, average price US$3,100/MT.

BMP suffered the biggest decrease, with its index falling by 10.1%. The indices for SMP and WMP fell by 1.2% and 1.6% respectively.

GDT

Image source: GDT

Today’s GDT auction lasted for just over two hours, with a total of 537 bidders registered. There were 140 winning bidders across a total of 15 bidding rounds.

Irish milk production surge continues for July supplies

Milk production on Irish farms this year has continued well ahead of 2016 levels, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 856.6 million litres for July 2017, according to the CSO. This was 9.5% above the corresponding 2016 figure.

Regarding milk production for 2017 so far, the total production from January to July was 4,676 million litres, which is up 7.4% on the same period last year (4,344.3 million litres).