Ornua has today (Wednesday, October 5) confirmed that its Purchase Price Index (PPI) dropped slightly for last month.

The September PPI stands at 184.5 which is down marginally from 184.6 in the previous month.

The September figure reflects a milk price of 56c/L, inclusive of VAT, based on Ornua’s product purchase mix and assumed member processing costs of 10.1c/L, this is excluding member margins.

This equivalent milk price is back on the August PPI of 56.9c/L, while the processing costs outlined by Ornua have increased by almost 1c/L in a month.

In a statement, the company noted that “the energy cost element of the processing cost is variable and changes each month depending on energy costs”.

The Ornua Value Payment payable to members in the month is €8.3 million, which equated to 3.5% of gross purchases in the month (3.6% year to date).

Dairy-calving statistics

Meanwhile, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index has recorded a decrease of 3.5% to 1166 following its latest auction which took place yesterday (Tuesday, October 4).

This follows two successive gains for the dairy commodity tracker in the trading events held last month.

The average price at yesterday’s auction was $3,911/MT, with 30,852MT of produce sold.

160 bidders took part in 19 rounds of bidding over two hours and 28 minutes, with 125 of those being successful.

All of the dairy commodities offered for sale during the auction posted average price decreases.

Butter had the sharpest fall in price of 7% to €4,983/MT, this followed on from a slight drop in the September 20 auction.