Dairy prices drop just 0.1 pc in latest GDT

File photo / Michael Cunningham

Prices have remained somewhat steady in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, held overnight, dropping just 0.1 per cent across the board.

The result follows a 2.8 per cent decline at the first event of the year held a fortnight ago.

Skim milk powder - Fonterra’s second-biggest reference product - dropped 0.3 per cent to an average of US$2842/MT.

Anhydrous milk fat fell 0.9 per cent with an average of US$5337/MT.

Butter also dipped 0.6 per cent to an average of US$4449/MT.

However, whole milk powder, which has the largest influence on Fonterra’s farmgate milk price, bucked the downward trend and rose 0.1 per cent to US$3218/MT.

Cheddar followed suit with the largest increase, jumping 4.0 per cent to an average of US$4871/MT.

Sweet whey powder, buttermilk powder and lactose were not offered.

There were 164 participants at this event, of which 127 were successful bidders, purchasing 31,872 MT of product.

Listen to Rowena Duncum interview Fonterra chief operating officer Fraser Whineray about the GDT on The Country below:

In December, Fonterra narrowed and lowered its forecast for 2022/23 - a farmgate milk price range of $8.50–$9.50 per kgMS, with a midpoint of $9.00.

In the same update, its forecast 2022/23 normalised earnings guidance was lifted to a range of 50 to 70 cents per share.