The Ornua Purchase Price Index (PPI) and the indicative per-litre price for milk are both unchanged on the figures for January.

In an announcement today (Wednesday, March 5), Ornua said that the PPI stood at 161.9 for February, stable versus January.

After deducting the estimated processing costs of 9.5c/L (the same figure used for January), the PPI figure implies an indicative return of 48.3c/L, inclusive of VAT at 5.1%, at standard constituents of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.

This price is unchanged from the price announced last month for January.

Ornua said the figure reflects "stable market returns for the month of February".

Ornua's estimated member processing costs are based on the average of processing the Ornua 'basket of products' which is "not representative" of any individual member co-op processor.

The estimated processing cost excludes allowances for the member co-op processor margin.

The cost is determined from using Ornua's initial estimate of member co-op processing costs from 2020 as a base, and then updating that figure quarterly in arrears based on indexes of variable elements, most notably energy costs.

The estimated processing costs will fall or rise quarterly as those external indexes change.

Ornua has also said today that its 'value payment' payable to its member co-ops in the month is €600,000, which equates to 1.9% of gross purchases in the month.

Ornua said that the PPI relates to product settlements/payments for the month and, for reasons of seasonality, is not directly aligned with milk production and payment.

In other dairy markets news, lactose, mozzarella and butter delivered an upbeat performance at the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction yesterday (Tuesday, March 4).

However, the overall GDT price index fell marginally by 0.5%.

There were a total of 176 bidders in the event which saw 20,977 metric tonnes (MT) of product sold.

The average selling price was €4,022 per metric tonne in the auction, which lasted for more than two hours, during which there were 126 winning bidders.

The GDT Price Index now stands at 1,251 as of yesterday – compared to the previous index figure on February 18 which was 1,257.