The most recent Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction was up 2.2% on Tuesday, with important price lifts for whole milk powder and butter.

Butter was up 8.4% to trade at $3,561/t and whole milk powder (WMP) was up 1.7% to trade at $3,041/t.

This latest result is good news for milk suppliers all over the world, as New Zealand milk supply cranks up at this time of the year. As New Zealand play an important part on export markets, a rising GDT helps market sentiment.

It also reinforces the previous auction result, which lifted 3.6% in mid-September.

All this will be music to the ears of Irish milk suppliers as boards meet over the coming days to set September milk prices.

Slow but steady

The chairpe of ICMSA’s dairy committee said that the ICMSA expects the latest lift in the GDT Index to “feed through” into announcements of prices for milk supplied in September.

Gerald Quain said that what he called the “slow but steady” return to normal trading conditions was continuing and the sharp uptick in butter and BMP is a positive development.

“We think that overall dairy prices will stabilise through Q4 and that, absent a massive destructive COVID-19 resurgence, prices should be around the 32c/l mark.

"We expect that to continue with the round of announcements beginning next week and attention should now switch to ensuring that the best possible trading Brexit agreement is secured and that our multi-billion euro dairy exports to Britain can be retained and even built on," he said.

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