“GDT is currently investigating the viability of creating multi-seller pools for homogenous products, such as generic lactose or other commodity products available from certain regions,” GDT director Eric Hansen said in the company’s annual report released this Monday.

Such pools would allow several dairy processors to contribute small lots of similar products to be sold as larger blocks through the GDT’s bi-monthly international bidding system. Hansen said that this would enable the trading platform to measure prices for a wider range of markets and dairy commodities.

It also lowers the minimum quantity requirement which has prevented some interested sellers from joining GDT

“Multi-seller pooling would enable greater confidentiality of commercially sensitive information while retaining the core transparency features of GDT events,” Hansen said. “It also lowers the minimum quantity requirement which has prevented some interested sellers from joining GDT events in the past.”

The New-Zealand based platform has seen its 12-month sold quantities decline constantly in the past two years, from around 1mt through 2014 to 630,000t last December, the annual report shows. The weight of the country’s largest dairy processor Fonterra in the volumes traded was illustrated by the last trading event, when Fonterra increased the volume of its whole milk powder (WMP) offering by 5%, prompting a 3.7% fall in the WMP price and a 3.2% drop in the overal GDT price index.

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