The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index lifted by 3.6% after Tuesday’s auction in New Zealand with an average product price of $2,419/t. The lift in the GDT is the first increase in the index since the beginning of October after the last three auctions led to consecutive declines in the average product price.

Butter made the strongest gains during Tuesday’s GDT auction with the average price increasing by 5.7% to just over US$3,000/t. As anticipated from indications from the NZX dairy futures market, whole milk powder (WMP) prices also gained strongly, with the average price up by 5.3% to $2,260/t.

The average price of skimmed milk powder (SMP) increased 3.2% to $1,918/t, while anhydrous milk fat gained over 2% to $3,519/t. The average price of cheddar fell by 1.5% to $2,829/t, while casein prices were back 4.3% to $5,046/t.

Volumes

The volume of product sold on the GDT continues to be low compared with previous years. Just over 28,000t of dairy commodities were sold during Tuesday’s auction, significantly down when compared with the near 40,000t sold this time last year. As per usual, WMP sales accounted for more than half of product sold.