Arrabawn Co-op has increased milk price by 1c/L for December supplies, a spokesperson for the co-op has confirmed to Agriland.

This increase brings the base milk price to 30.75c/L for December.

Arrabawn is the third co-op to set a milk price for December milk supplies, with Glanbia and Lakeland Dairies setting milk prices last week.

Glanbia announced that it will pay its suppliers 30c/L including VAT for December manufacturing milk supplies.

Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) has increased its base price for December by 1c/L to 30c/L including VAT for manufacturing milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.

In light of this decision, there will be no Glanbia Co-operative Society support payment to members this month.

Glanbia Chairman Henry Corbally said that the strong recovery in Glanbia’s milk price in the past six months has resulted in a positive conclusion to a very challenging year for the dairy sector.

Last week, Lakeland increased the milk price paid for December supplies to 30.28c/L including VAT.

The decision to increase the December price by 1c/L follows on from last month’s decision to increase the November milk price by 2c/L to over 29c/L including VAT.

Last week, it was announced that the Ornua PPI (Purchase Price Index) increased for a sixth consecutive time in December, reflecting higher market returns in the month across all products, Ornua announced.

The monthly indicator of market returns on dairy products purchased by Ornua (typically butter, cheese, whole milk powder and protein products) for December increased to 103.8 points.

This latest figure is up from the 99.4 points for November returns.

The PPI can provide a reference as to how the general dairy market is performing, and may help to guide expectations around likely returns for dairy products and the milk used in their manufacture.