Dairy markets continued the upward trend established over the last number of weeks. As reported in detail in the news pages, the New Zealand GDT auction result on Tuesday was up 1.1% on average. This is the sixth consecutive auction to show an increase in price for product traded.

Large percentage increases in butter and cheddar kept the auction result positive, even though whole milk powder prices were down slightly. The weighted average price of whole milk powder (WMP) was -1% and the actual weighted average price is US $3,241/tonne.

The slight decline means the market has stabilised from the recent high percentage rises but there were higher volumes of product traded through the exchange in this week’s auction.

The EU spot price for milk was down slightly to 34.5 c/litre for 1 March (see graph).

The European milk market observatory suggests the weighted average milk price paid across all countries in the EU for January was 32.3 c/litre. This means on average the EU price is 19% back on the same month last year. Irish January milk prices are down 18% compared with the same month last year.