Carbery Group is the latest processor to announce an increase in its milk price for September by 1c/L.
If this decision is replicated across the four west Cork co-ops: Bandon; Barryroe; Drinagh; and Lisavaird; this will result in an average price for September of 37.2c/L, inclusive of VAT and 0.5c/L somatic cell count (SCC) bonus, according to the company.
A spokesperson for Carbery Group said that the company has taken the decision to support their suppliers, though cheese is lagging behind in the dairy markets.
“While dairy markets are performing strongly, the price of cheese is not as strong as other commodities,” the spokesperson said.
“However, we are committed to supporting our suppliers and are therefore increasing our milk price by 1c/L.”
Global Dairy Trade and impact on milk price
Meanwhile, after the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index went unchanged after the auction of October 5, the latest event yesterday (Tuesday, October 19) has seen an index increase of 2.2%.
Event 294 yesterday concluded after 14 bidding rounds, with 117 winning bidders from 177 participating.
The event lasted two hours and 10 minutes. Overall, 27,836MT of product were sold, at an average price of $4,061/MT.
These numbers mean that the GDT index figure is 1,256 as of yesterday, compared to 1,229 at the last event.
Breakdown of products
The largest increase was for lactose, which saw an increase of 5.9% to $1,258/MT.
Butter also performed well, seeing an increase of 4.7% to $5,111/MT.
Cheddar increased by 2.9% to $4,426/MT, while anhydrous milk fat (AMF) and skim milk powder (SMP) both recorded increases of 2.5% (to $6,151/MT and $3,401/MT respectively).
Other milk prices this week
Carbery Group was the second processor this week to announce its September milk price.
Yesterday, Dairygold announced that it had increased the September quoted milk price by 75c/L to 37c/L, based on standard constituents of 3.3% protein and 3.6% butterfat, inclusive of bonuses and VAT.
According to the processor, this price equates to an average September farm gate milk price of 44.7c/L, based on average September milk solids, achieved by Dairygold milk suppliers.
The quoted price for September based on EU standard constituents of 3.4% protein and 4.2% butterfat is 40.4c/L.