Lakeland Dairies is the latest processor to increase its May milk price, following on from Glanbia’s announcement earlier today.

The processor has increased its base price by 1c/L; suppliers of Lakeland Dairies will be paid 32c/L for milk produced in May.

This is the first time that Lakeland Dairies has announced a milk price increase in three months; the latest increase, of 1c/L, from the processor came in the first month of the year.

Earlier this morning, Glanbia announced a milk price increase for May supplies, rising its base price to 32c/L including VAT.

Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) has increased its base price for May by 1c/L, for manufacturing milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.

This milk price increase follows on from three consecutive months of the processor deciding to hold its base price at 31c/L including VAT; prior to this month, the last milk price increase of 1c/L from Glanbia came in January.

The increase reflected the improved returns from some products, particularly butter, according to the Chairman of Glanbia Henry Corbally.

But he cautioned that the supply/demand balance was uneven across the product portfolio.

As always, market returns and milk price will be reviewed by the board on a monthly basis, he added.

Other processors are expected to announce their milk prices for May milk in the coming days.

Ornua’s PPI increases for the first time in 2017

Meanwhile, Ornua’s Puchase Price Index (PPI) increased by 1.8%, to 106.8%, for the month of May; this represented its first increase in 2017.

Since the beginning of the year the PPI has remained relatively static. It began the year at 105.4% in January before decreasing slightly to 105% in April.

The last time Ornua’s PPI reached its current level was in the latter half of 2014, almost two and a half years ago.

In the second half of 2016, the PPI enjoyed a surge; it climbed from a low of 81% in June of last year, right up until the level it reached in January 2017.

This represented seven consecutive monthly increases or a jump of 24.4% over the course of seven months, figures show.

Ornua’s recent announcement follows on from the results of the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction; the upward trend continued as the price index increased by 0.6%.

The last time a decrease in the price index was recorded at a GDT auction was on March 7, 2017; six consecutive price increases have been recorded since then.

At the previous three GDT auctions, the price index has climbed by over 3% each time.