Global Dairy Trade: Dairy prices ease 0.3% in latest auction

Whole milk powder edged up, but overall GDT prices slipped in the latest GDT auction. Photo / Christine Cornege

Prices have dropped slightly in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, held overnight, with a 0.3% dip across the board.

The result ends a short run of gains, following a 0.7% lift at the previous event and a 1.1% rise on July 16.

Before that, prices had fallen at four consecutive auctions between late May and early July.

Whole milk powder - which has the biggest impact on Fonterra’s farmgate milk price - recorded a modest 0.3% lift, to an average of US$4036/MT.

Skim milk powder - Fonterra’s second-biggest reference product – was down 1.8%, to an average of US$2756/MT.

Anhydrous milk fat was the only other positive result apart from whole milk powder, with a 0.1% bump to an average of US$7078/MT.

On the negative side, cheddar dropped 0.5%, to an average of US$4548/MT, and butter slid 1.0% to an average of US$7144/MT.

Mozzarella recorded the steepest fall, down 2.7% to US$4447/MT.

Butter milk powder was not available at this event.

Lactose was not offered at this event.

A total of 36,553 metric tonnes of product was sold to 126 successful bidders, compared with 37,040 MT and 122 bidders at the previous auction.

On May 29, Fonterra announced an opening forecast farmgate milk price for the 2025/26 season of $10.00 per kgMS, with a wide forecast range of $8.00 - $11.00 per kgMS.

The forecast for the 2024/25 season was left unchanged at a range of between $9.70kgMS - $10.30kgMS -with a $10.00kgMS midpoint.