Polish Dairy, the fifth largest producer of milk in the European Union, will join Fonterra Cooperative Group's Global Dairy Trade platform from November 21, initially offering skim milk powder, whole milk powder, butter and lactose on the platform.
"Central Europe has become an increasingly important dairy region. The addition ofa seller from Poland is evidence of the emerging strength of that nation's dairy sector, and will be welcomed by our network of over 500 registered GDT Events buyers," said Eric Hansen, director of Global Dairy Trade in a press release. The platform, which has moved more than US$20 billion in dairy products since it launched in 2008, is looking to broaden its offering to meet customer needs.
Polish Dairy chief executive Mirosław Szczepański said accessing a respected mechanism for discovering prices in global markets has become increasingly important as Poland's dairy production capacity scales up.
"Since it became a member of the European Union in 2004, Poland's dairy sector has developed at a rapid pace. The country is well suited to milk production due to the good infrastructure and potential for grassland development. The majority of Polish milk factories have gone through a modernisation process and are currently among the most modern in Europe," said Szczepański.
While traditionally the milk was sold domestically, as the volumes increase "our dairy sector has become more focused on markets beyond Poland's border," said Szczepański. Global Dairy Trade recently also announced it will be hosting its first multi-seller pool which will offer US-sourced lactose products during the GDT auction on December 5. On another front, GDT recently inked a letter of intent to evaluate a new auction mechanism for dairy products in Europe with the European Energy Exchange.
