Dairy product prices increased by 1.6% at the latest Global Dairy Trade auction. This follows on from an increase of 1.7% at the last auction in March.
Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) showed a decrease of 0.8%, while Whole Milk Powder rose by 2.4%.
The price index for Butter Milk Powder (BMP) recorded a big decline; a fall of 12.2% was seen at today’s GDT auction.
The trading event lasted for close to two hours; a total of 537 bidders were registered.
There was a total of 118 winning bidders throughout the 13 bidding rounds.
Key results
- AMF index up 2.5%, average price US$5,936/MT
- Butter index down 1.6%, average price US$4,751/MT
- BMP index down 12.2%, average price US$1,588/MT
- Ched index down 4.4%, average price US$3,288/MT
- LAC index up 2.2%, average price US$927/MT
- RenCas index up 6.9%, average price US$6,260/MT
- SMP index down 0.8%, average price US$1,913/MT
- WMP index up 2.4%, average price US$2,924/MT
Source: GDT
Irish milk production continues to fall
The most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that Irish milk production continued to fall in 2017, with production in February dropping by 7.8% compared with the same month in 2016.
Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 264.8m litres for February 2017. This represented a decrease of 22.3m litres compared with the previous February (2016).
The year-to-year decreases (in milk production) follow on from a fall in production of 4.6% in the first month of 2017 (compared with same month in 2016).
When comparing February 2017 to the corresponding month in 2016, the total milk sold for human consumption decreased by 4.9 % to 39.4m litres, according to the CSO.
Meanwhile, butter production also dropped by 11.5 % to 8,200t.