Arla foods has announced it is increasing its milk price by 0.32p/l to 26.39p/l, while First Milk is sitting at 26p/l based on milk with 4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein. The Arla price rise is due to last quarter’s average exchange rate being introduced into the co-op’s currency smoothing mechanism.

Arla Foods amba board director, Johnnie Russell, said: “Commodity market prices have stabilised over the last few weeks, however protein prices remain at record-low values. The recent increases in butterfat and cheese prices have diminished, with these prices also stabilising around February levels.”

As of 1 April, First Milk will be changing its regional pricing pool to two payment schedules, First Milk Liquid and First Milk Manufacturing. This comes after member feedback, with the change supported by the member council and the board. It will see milk prices harmonised at a standard litre of 4% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

Previously, the member-owned co-op operated a number of regional milk schedules, which had been introduced in the past to reflect the returns from specific geographical regions. However, members felt that the differences in returns between different areas are now very small. Therefore, farmers wanted a more simplified payment schedule.

Skimmed milk powder sold

The European Commission (EC) held a round of tenders for stored skimmed milk powder (SMP) last week, with an agreement to sell 4,127t. Tenders for 33,585t were not accepted, as they did not reach the minimum price of €105/100kg. There are still 370,000t to come back onto the market after EC intervention. There is also changes to how the EC buys-in SMP for intervention. There will no longer be a set price, but purchases will be conducted through a tendering process. The recent round of all bids to buy 1,349t of SMP were rejected.