Ornua’s Purchase Price Index (PPI) has risen for the month of February, driven by stronger butter and powder returns, the Irish dairy exporter has confirmed.

In a brief statement to AgriLand this evening (Wednesday, March 3), a spokesperson for Ornua said:

“The Ornua Purchase Price Index for the month of February is 108.5 and is up from 107.3 in the previous month.”

This converts to 31.8c/L including VAT, based on Ornua’s product purchase mix, an assumed member processing cost of 7c/L and excluding member margin.

The increase is driven by stronger butter and powder returns, the Ornua spokesperson added.

“In addition, the Ornua Value Payment payable to members in the month is €1.1 million, which equated to 7.8% of gross purchases in the month [year to date 7.1%],” the representative concluded.

This follows the news yesterday that the Global Dairy Trade Index posted an increase of 15% – one of the largest increases the firm has announced in the past six years.

Lasting two hours and 53 minutes, yesterday’s event saw 180 bidders participate; after 23 bidding rounds, some 86 winning bidders emerged. A total of 25,554MT of product was sold on the day.

Whole milk powder (WMP) saw the most dramatic rise on the day, increasing by a considerable 21% in index.

The latest auction marks the highest the GDT index has been since March 2014 in what has been a remarkable start to 2021 for the dairy index.

Source: Global Dairy Trade