The average price across all products was $2,345/t, down $224 on the last result. Whole milk powder prices dropped substantially by 11%, a good deal more than was predicted by NZX whole milk powder futures last week.

The next biggest drop was for skimmed milk powder, which saw a drop of 8.1%. This was followed by anhydrous milk fat (5.9%) and cheddar (5%). In contrast to cheese and milk powders, butter is enjoying a bouyant trade at the moment and this was reflected in the GDT with a 5.6% rise to $2,709/t.

There were 141 participating bidders at the auction on Tuesday with 13 bidding rounds and 30,044m tonnes of quantity sold. The quantity is down over 20,000t on this time last year.

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This is the third consecutive drop in the average price at the auction since 20 October 2015.

Despite today's drop, all but one of the Irish dairy processors who have so far set an October milk price have held the price this month. Carbery, which held for most of the year, cut its base price by 1c/l on Tuesday.