World dairy prices up 3.5pc in overnight auction

Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prices of dairy products rose for only the fourth time this year in the latest GlobalDairyTrade sale overnight, paced by whole milk powder, the biggest product by volume sold through the platform by Fonterra.

The GDT-TWI Price Index rose 3.5 per cent compared to the last sale in July. The average winning price rose to US$2,797 a metric tonne. Whole milk powder rose 3.5 per cent to US$2,675 a tonne and skim milk powder gained 3 per cent to $2,805 a tonne.

See more details of the auction here.

Dairy products are New Zealand's biggest export by value and the gain in the latest sale should be a positive for the New Zealand dollar, though any reaction has been overwhelmed by reaction to the Federal Reserve's latest statement, which lifted the greenback across the board. Fonterra has said it expected global supply and demand to come more into balance in the second half of the year, arresting the slide in prices.

The kiwi dollar recently traded at 80.84 US cents, down from 81.07 cents late yesterday. The trade weighted index was at 73.04, little changed from yesterday.

In the latest GDT auction, anhydrous milk fat fell 1.3 per cent to US$2,804 a tonne and butter milk powder dropped 8.6 per cent to US$2,416 a tonne.

Cheddar rose 5.5 per cent to US$3,159 a tonne and lactose rose 3.6 per cent to US$1,981 a tonne. Milk protein concentrate gained 11.5 per cent to US$4,637 a tonne and rennet casein rose 7.3 per cent to US$6,807 a tonne.

There were 142 winning bidders over 13 rounds. There were 195 participating bidders out of a total number of qualified bidders that rose to 702 from 681.