Second consecutive decrease recorded at the latest GDT auction

The price index has decreased for the second consecutive time at the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction.

The overall price index dropped slightly, by 0.4%, at today’s event. This followed a decrease of 0.8% at the GDT event on June 20.

Prior to the event in the latter half of last month, a total of six consecutive price increases were recorded at the GDT auctions.

Lasting for just over two and a half hours, the latest auction had a total of 127 winning bidders over the course of 19 bidding rounds.

Source: GDT

The skimmed milk powder (SMP) price index fell by 4.5%, while the whole milk powder (WMP) index rose by 2.6% at the latest auction.

A decrease of 0.1% was recorded in the butter index and cheddar decreased by 3.2%. The butter milk powder (BMP) index jumped by 10.8% at today’s event.

Key Results:

AMF index down 3.5%, average price US$6,596/MT;
Butter index down 0.1%, average price US$5,775/MT;
BMP index up 10.8%, average price US$2,264/MT;
Ched index down 3.2%, average price US$4,051/MT;
LAC index down 3.3%, average price US$839/MT;
RenCas index down 2.7%, average price US$6,133/MT;
SMP index down 4.5%, average price US$2,090/MT;
WMP index up 2.6%, average price US$3,111/MT.

Irish milk production continues well ahead of 2016 levels

Meanwhile, 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).

During the month of May, production increased by 7.3% compared to the same month last year.

Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 997 million litres during the fifth month of this year, a rise of 67.4 million litres, the CSO added.

Comparing year-on-year figures, the total milk sold for human consumption decreased by 0.5% – to 45.1 million litres – in May 2017. Meanwhile, butter production was up 14.9% – to 28,060t.

These production figures represent the third consecutive monthly increase on Irish farms in 2017. In April, milk production in Ireland jumped by 12.1%, when compared to the same month in the previous year.

This followed on from a year-on-year increase of 3.9% in March. Prior to this, falls of 4.6% and 7.8% (versus 2016 figures) were recorded in January and February respectively.

In the first five months of the year, a total of 2,905.8 million litres was produced on Irish farms. This represented a jump of 186.1 million litres or an increase of 6.8%, compared to the same period last year.