The fall in the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index yesterday, Tuesday, August 4, is “not a cause for concern”, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has argued.

Gerald Quain, the association’s Dairy Committee chairperson, said that he and the ICMSA would expect price announcements from processors not to be overly influenced by the GDT auction result.

He also argued that August was a “low-activity month” – with buyers and sellers on holidays – and may not necessarily reflect normal market conditions.

[We] expect the forthcoming price announcements for July milk to reflect the underlying strength and growing momentum as normal trading conditions gradually reassert themselves.

“Traditionally, August is a quiet month. There is very little trading done and trends in August tend to be up and down and not reflective of normal market developments or conditions in any particular year,” Quain pointed out.

The GDT index suffered its second drop in succession at yesterday’s auction event, with the index dropping by 5.1%.

Lasting two hours and 29 minutes, yesterday’s event saw 164 bidders participate across 19 rounds with 132 winning bidders recorded.

A total of 32,696MT of product was sold on the day.

Key results:

  • AMF index up 3.0%, average price US$3,994/MT;
  • Butter index down 2.8%, average price US$3,438/MT;
  • BMP index down 6.5%, average price US$2,259/MT;
  • Ched index down 5.3%, average price US$3,568/MT;
  • LAC index up 5.7%, average price US$1,349/MT;
  • SMP index down 4.6%, average price US$2,583/MT;
  • SWP index not available, average price not available;
  • WMP index down 7.5%, average price US$3,003/MT.