After a few steep price declines, price developments on the New Zealand dairy auction platform Global Dairy Trade (GDT) turned a corner this week.

At its most benign, you could say prices are now stabilising.

You could also say a price rise at peak milk is very positive for the sector. The fact that milk powders saw a decent upward correction helps the story even more.

Butter and cheese are a bit weaker.

With an increase of 2.4%, the average price is $3,623/t. The average price increase is mainly due to the upward price curve of the milk powders.

Both whole and low-fat powder increased by 3.1% to $3,397/t and $3,057/t respectively. These are the first serious price increases since mid-September.

This result could mean that prices had fallen too far and the result this week is the market attempt to correct that.

The European milk powder market has also recently started to feel more positive.

Butter and cheddar

The butter price held pretty well, while it still showed a decrease of 0.8%, at $4,829/t.

The results this week point to more positivity and more consistency for future trading.

Of late, all the talk has been China still under COVID-19 pressure and inflation on food prices keeping consumers away from supermarkets.

As Irish processors meet to set October prices, this will give confidence to board members to hold for the winter months, as relative volumes are small anyway at this time of the year.