Carbery Group has announced that it has increased its milk price for December, becoming the latest processor to do so.

The group has increased its price by 1c/L for last month’s milk. The board of the group also confirmed that it will pay a 0.5c/L bonus for all milk supplied in 2021.

If this milk price is replicated across the four west Cork co-ops – Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird – it will result in an average base price for December of 40.4c/L including VAT and a 0.5c/L somatic cell count (SCC) bonus, a statement from the dairy business said.

The price for December, including the additional 2021 0.5c/L bonus is 40.9c/L, Carbery Group said.

The group is the sixth major dairy business to reveal its milk price in the last week – and also the sixth to increase its price, after Lakeland, Glanbia, Kerry Group, Aurivo and Dairygold did likewise.

The increasing milk prices are being spurred on in part by strong international dairy markets.

This is evidenced by the most recent Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction event, which took place yeatrerday (Tuesday, June 19).

The 300th GDT trading event yesterday resulted in a 4.6% price index increase – reaching its highest mark in eight years.

The latest price index figure following today’s event stands at 1,397, up from 1,336 at the last event held on January 4.

The index is the highest in eight years since it reached 1,404 in March 2014.

The GDT price index is calculated from the total quantity sold in an event across all products, contract periods and sellers.

The latest event saw an average price of $4,463/MT, with 30,644MT being sold across 15 bidding rounds over a period of two hours and five minutes.

The event saw 111 winning bidders out of 167 who participated. Minimum supply was recorded at 28,270MT and maximum supply at 33,205MT.

All traded products – for which figures have been published – saw an increase.

Whole milk powder (WMP) showed the strongest performance at the trade event with a 5.6% increase, reaching $4,082/MT on average.