FrieslandCampina has held its guaranteed price for raw milk for June supplies at €25.00/100kg of milk (24.16c/L in Irish constituents).

For May milk, the Dutch dairy cut its milk price by €2.50 – which was a cut of almost 2.42c/L on the April milk price.

The demand for dairy products is stable and milk production seems to have reached its seasonal peak, according to FrieslandCampina.

The prices for dairy products are still low, a statement from the dairy said. There is also a correction of €0.41  in the guaranteed price to compensate for too high an estimated guaranteed price of April.

The protein price in June 2016 is €408.10, the fat price is €204.05 and the lactose price is €40.81 per 100kg.

The guaranteed price applies to 100kg of milk with a protein content of 3.47%, a fat content of 4.41% and a lactose content of 4.51% and is exclusive of VAT.

The amounts shown apply to an average supply of 600,000kg of milk annually.

Earlier this year, farmers supplying FrieslandCampina were paid a total of €14.1m for limiting their milk supply between January 1 and February 11 this year.

FrieslandCampina paid its member dairy farmers a ‘bonus’ of €2.00/kg if they limited supply within this time period.

The temporary measure resulted in a reduction of the milk supply of a total of about 35m kg of milk in the past six weeks.

There was insufficient processing capacity available at the dairy due to a stronger growth in milk supply than FrieslandCampina expected, thus, the measure was needed.

Some 60% of member dairy farmers participated in the arrangement.

Because of the temporary measure, combined with a number of other measures, FrieslandCampina was able to buy all the milk from the member dairy farmers during the past six weeks.