Fonterra's Head of Co-operative Affairs Canterbury Charles Fergusson had the unenviable task of dissecting the latest Global Dairy Trade Auction result on today's show.
The GDT price index dropped 6.3 per cent, driven mostly by a sharp fall in skim-milk and whole-milk powder prices. Whole-milk powder prices, which have the greatest bearing on Fonterra's farmgate milk price, dropped by 12.4 per cent to US$2782 ($3982) a tonne and skim-milk powder prices fell by 15.5 per cent to US$2118 a tonne.
Fergusson says although a drop was not totally unexpected, the magnitude of this result came as a bit of a surprise.
