The eleventh tender sale of product out of intervention resulted in no sales this week.

There was two small bids on SMP, the highest coming in at €1,750/t, but both were rejected for being below the minimum fixed price.

Of the 11 sales of SMP to date, only two have yielded sales, albeit small sales. At the first tender there were 22,150t on offer. To date, only 140t of this has been sold.

According to the EU’s Milk Market Observatory (MMO) average EU SMP prices stand around the 1,800/t mark. Prices have been falling over the past number of weeks, and now sit near the intervention price of €1,698/t.

Butter

While SMP continues its price decline, the same cannot be said for its parent product – butter.

This week saw butter prices break the $6,000/t ceiling at the Global Dairy Trade auction, while in Europe butter prices are in the region of €6,300/t.

Demand for butter remains strong, with some commentators suggesting there could be a shortage of the product before Christmas in the UK.

Prices look set to continue their upward trajectory over the coming weeks.

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Butter prices hitting pockets

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