The price index for whole milk power (WMP) increased by 2.4% with an average WMP price of $2,924 at Tuesday’s GDT auction in New Zealand.

Prices for skim milk power (SMP) fell back marginally by 0.8%, with an average weighted price at $1,913.

Butter has been trading strongly recently but the index fell back by 1.6% on Tuesday with the average butter price finishing at $4,751.

Butter milk powder was back 12.2% in the index to an average weighted price of $1,588.

The anhydrous milk fat index was up 2.5% to an average price of $5,936 and rennet casein increased by 6.9% to $6,260. Cheddar dropped by 4.4% on the index to an average price of $3,288 whereas lactose was up 2.2% to $927.

Overall, there were 22,642mt of product sold over 13 bidding rounds at the latest auction. This represents an 0.64% increase compared with 22,498mt sold at the last GDT event a fortnight ago.

Previous result

The last GDT auction had a 1.7% increase in the price index meaning Tuesday's result is the second consecutive rise at the event.

April, May and June futures contracts for WMP have been stable for the last week which can also be used to gauge buyer sentiment in global dairy markets.

Milk prices

In a statement after the latest GDT auction, IFA national dairy committee chair Sean O’Leary said that co-ops need to deliver the predicted average milk price of 33c/l before the supply peak.

He said that expected increased global milk supply was not materialising and was subsequently influencing pricing decisions by dairy product buyers.

“Average EU prices for an Irish basket of dairy products on that date [26 March] would have returned a gross 35.7c/l before processing costs, equivalent to a milk price of 30.7c/l plus VAT (32.36c/l including VAT),” O’Leary said.

Read more

US cheese stocks reach all-time high

Strathroy labels IFA's Milk Wise 2025 as 'scaremongering'

What is the GDT and how does it work?