The big news this week is the positive Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction result, which saw the index increase by 1.5%, the first increase since March. The index is back now to where it was in February.

The big stand-out performers were once again in powders, with whole milk powder (WMP) up by 2.2% and skim milk powder (SMP) up by 3%.

There was gains also for anhydrous milk fat (up 1.1%) and butter milk powder (up 9%).

Butter took a hit again at this auction, declining in price by 2.6% to reach €4,722/t.

Incidentally, the European spot price for butter has fallen also this week and settled at €3,700/t.

That’s not a typo, there is a clear €1,000/t in the difference in price between European butter spot price and the average of the GDT auction price.

On a price-per-litre-of-milk basis, that’s a difference of about 5c/l between the two markets, which is extraordinary really and a total reversal of where the market was at this time last year, when European butter was making thousands per tonne more than the GDT butter.

Staying in Europe, it wasn’t a great week, with drops in price for most commodity classes, with the exception of SMP, which increased in price again this week by €125/t to €2,900/t. This price is still €100/t behind the GDT price.

Elsewhere, Ornua released the PPI for April milk, which showed a large enough lift compared to March.

When the Ornua value payment is factored in, the price per litre excluding VAT has gone up from 35.72c/l in March to 38.96c/l in April.

These increases obviously reflect the improved market returns, particularly for skim products.