Dairy product prices fell by an overall 0.6% at today’s Global Dairy Trade auction run by Fonterra. The relative stability hides some significant changes on individual commodities, with butter up by 4.9% to $2,940 and whole milk powder 3.4% higher at $2,804 per tonne. As recently as the February auction, whole milk powder traded at $5,000 per tonne.

However cheddar fell by a significant 7.9% to $3,453 per tonne. In the wake of the whole milk powder price crash of recent months, New Zealand is expected to divert more milk to cheese.

In terms of forward prices, WMP for February 2015 delivery traded at $2,901 per tonne, a drop of 5.7% on the last auction.