The average European standard milk price for May rose by €0.38, ending an 11-month-long run of reductions in rates paid by processors.

According to ZuivelNL, the European average base price for May was €38.15/100kg, up from the €37.81 paid in April.

When bonuses are included, the average jumped to €40.14, an increase of €0.38 over April's average.

This will come as refreshing news to farmers, as it confirms a reversal of months of downward slide that began in June 2025, and was seen across the board in Ireland.

Despite the good news, the base remains significantly below the May 2025 average base price of €48.76 per 100kg of milk. This drop outlies the extent of the milk price collapse over the last 12 months.

ZuivelNL

ZuivelNL was set up by the Dutch Dairy Organisation and the Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture in January 2014, with the function of tracking price trends across Europe.

It calculates prices in euro per 100kg standard milk with 4.2% fat, 3.4% protein, total bacterial count (tbc) 24,999/ml and somatic cell count (SCC) of 249,999/ml with VAT excluded

For Irish farmers the conversion factor for kgs to litres is 1.03, which means that 1L of milk corresponds to 1.03kg of milk.

The Irish processors Kinisla, Tirlán and Dairygold are included in the survey of European prices.

Dairygold's average base price for May was €36.77/100kg while Tirlán set a base price of €36.97/100kg.

Kinisla, formally Kerry Dairy Ireland, were the highest paying Irish processor at a base price of €37.22/100kg.

Tirlán held its milk base price from April, as it sought to bring stability to farmers. Dairygold increased their base price by €0.51 while Kinisla saw a €0.41 rise.

Saputo Dairy UK (Dairy Crest) are the only UK processor included in the survey. They pay out at €3.39/kg for fat and €6.78/kg for protein with a base price of €36.23/100kg of milk.

The leader among European processors was Emmi, a Swiss-based processor, who paid out €69.14/100kg which has increased by €0.82 on April's price. Emmi pays €6.56/kg for fat and €5.47/kg of protein.

Emmi are consistently ahead of other European processors by regularly €20/100kg. This is due to Switzerland having some of the highest production costs for milk in the world.

Arla saw the biggest jump in May, with the base price increasing by €1.99 to €37.02/100kg. Arla pay for fat at €5.35/kg and protein at €4.28/kg.

According to ZuivelNL, one "notable development" in the first quarter of 2026 was the sharp decline in Irish milk deliveries. Cumulative EU milk deliveries increased by 4.2% in the period through April 2026.

Butter

The price of milk is heavily linked to the global butter trade.

According to ZuivelNL, butter prices fell steeply mid-March and has fluctuated significantly since.

The latest butter price from the Global Dairy trade show that butter declined to €4,674/metric tonne (MT) on July 7. This is down from the most recent peak on June 2 of €4,924/MT.

The results from the most previous round of trading on July 7, saw decreases in prices for the main dairy products.

ZuivelNL have pointed to the supply of milk as driving this downward trend, as many butter producers have met their requirement for the year already.

Overall, the total volume of the major dairy exporters (including the EU) was 3.8% higher in the period through April 2026 than a year earlier.