Kerry Group has announced its milk price for the month of April, becoming the first processor to do so.

In a statement today, the group said: “Our Kerry Group base price for April milk supplies is 34c/L including VAT at 3.3% protein [and] 3.6% butterfat.”

This price is held on the figure announced last month for March milk supplies.

The base price this month converts into 37.35c/L including VAT based on EU standard constituents of 3.4% protein and 4.2% butterfat.

According to Kerry Group, the milk price return based on average milk solids for April will be 36.6c/L including VAT and bonuses.

This round of milk processor prices comes after the Ornua Purchase Price Index (PPI) saw an increase for the month of April, driven by stronger butter and powder returns.

In a statement last Thursday (May 6), Ornua confirmed that the PPI for the month of April was 115.1, up from 112.6 the previous month.

This converts to 34.2c/L, including VAT, based on Ornua’s product purchase mix and assumed member processing cost of 7c/L and excluding member margin.

That figure was up 0.9c/L on the 33.3c/L announced last month.

However, also last week, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index saw a slight drop to mark back-to-back decreases for the first time this year.

In the latest auction, the index decreased by 0.7%.

The auction on Tuesday (May 4) lasted two hours and seven minutes, and saw 148 participating bidders take part across 17 bidding rounds, with 108 winning bidders emerging.

A total of 22,020MT of product was sold on the day.

The most dramatic move on the day was in fact an increase – butter milk powder (BMP) elevated by 14.4% in index.

On the flip side, butter took a heavy tumble in index, down 12.1%, while there was also a drop for cheddar.