The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index is virtually unchanged after the latest trading event today (Tuesday, November 21).
The index after today’s event is 986, only one point down from the last event, not a significant enough of a change for the GDT to record a percentage change.
The latest result follows on from a slight decrease two weeks ago, which itself followed four consecutive increases.
34,111MT of product was sold today, at an average price of $3,268/MT.
160 bidders participated across 17 bidding rounds lasting a combined two hours and eight minutes, with 117 bidders emerging.
In terms of the product sub-indices, the stand-out result was a 9.7% decrease in the cheddar sub-index, for a price of $3,637/MT.
However, the lactose sub-index helped to offset the cheddar decrease to a large degree, increasing by 6.4% for $750/MT.
Increases were also recorded for anhydrous milk fat (AMF) – up 0.9% for a price of $5,544/MT – and whole milk powder (WMP) – up 1.9% for a price of $3,027/MT.
Elsewhere, decreases were recorded for butter – down 1.1% for a price of $4,833/MT – and skim milk powder (SMP) – down 3.8% for a price of $2,622.
The unchanged GDT index is reflected in milk prices paid to farmers for October supplies by the country’s main milk processors.
In the latest milk price announcement, from Carbery Group today (Tuesday, November 21), the business said it will maintain its base milk price for the month of October.
The west Cork-based processor has said that it is also continuing to support milk price from its Stability Fund with a slightly smaller contribution of 2c/L in October compared to 3c/L September.
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 October of 34.92c/L, compared to an average price in September of 35.98c/L, according to Carbery.
This is inclusive of VAT and 0.5c/L somatic cell count (SCC) bonus as well as the Stability Fund payment.