Ornua has revealed its Purchase Price Index (PPI) for February, holding largely steady on its January figure.

According to a spokesperson for the dairy exporter, the PPI index February is 107.64, a marginal rise of 0.04 on January’s 107.6 index.

January’s figure in turn was a slight rise on the 107.5 recorded in December.

Meanwhile, the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction – event 231 – has ended on a high, recording a seventh consecutive rise in price index.

Yesterday’s event (Tuesday, March 5) concluded with the GDT price index up 3.3% overall.

Lasting two hours and six minutes, 176 participating bidders battled across 14 rounds with 109 proving successful.

A total of 23,930MT of product was sold on the day.

Butter saw the most dramatic move on the day, recording an 11% rise in index. Meanwhile, both cheddar and whole milk powder (WMP) documenting a healthy 6% boost.

On the flip side, skimmed milk powder (SMP) dropped 4.3% in index, while rennet casein (RenCas) fell marginally by 0.1%.