Ornua has today (Thursday, August 6) confirmed its Purchase Price Index (PPI) for the month of July.

Ornua said the PPI for the month of July 2026 is 130.2, up from the previous month at 130.1.

The PPI is a monthly indicator of market returns on dairy products purchased by Ornua - including butter, cheese, whole milk powder and protein products - relative to comparable returns generated in a base year.

The co-op noted 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".

Ornua

Ornua’s estimate of member co-ops processing costs was 10.0c/L in July, which is up from 9.5c/L in the previous month.

Ornua said that it should be noted that these estimated processing costs:

Are based on Ornua’s estimate of the average cost of processing the Ornua basket of products, which is not representative of any individual member co-op processor;
Exclude any allowance for member co-op processor margin;
Are based on an updated methodology (from 1 July 2024) which uses Ornua’s initial estimate of member co-op processing costs from 2020 as a base and indexes the variable elements to external indices which will be updated quarterly in arrears;
Will rise and fall quarterly in line with the movements in the variable costs (most notably energy) as per the external indices.

When estimated processing costs are deducted, Ornua’s PPI implies an indicative return of 36.2c/L, 4.5% VAT inclusive.

This is down from the previous month's figure of 36.7c/L

The figure is for milk with constituents of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein, which is net of Ornua costs to market.

In a statement, Ornua said: "The results reflect stable market returns for the month of July".

In addition to the above, the ‘Ornua Value Payment’ payable to member co-ops in the month is €7.7 million, which equated to 6.3% of gross purchases in the month.

Dairy markets

Meanwhile, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index increased slightly after the latest trading event held on Tuesday (August 4).

This marks the second increase in the index following three decreases in a row.

The index has increased by 0.1%, reflecting an average price for product sold during the trading event of €3,275/t.

The index figure now stands at 1,140, slightly up from 1,139 at the last trading event.