GDT dairy commodity price index jumps 16.5%

Tuesday’s Fonterra’s Global Dairy Trade (GDT) online commodity auction recorded the third rise in a row. The index jumped 16.5% compared with the result of the previous fortnightly sale.
The latest auction produced increases across all products except butter milk powder (BMP) and saw the weighted average across all commodities rise to US$2,568/t (£1,664/t).
See also: Dairy and chicken hit hard as £300m knocked off food exports
Whole milk powder (WMP), saw the biggest increase, at 20.6%, while skimmed milk powder (SMP) and anhydrous milk fat (AMF) also rose by 17% and 13.7% respectively.
The two previous auctions saw the increase rise by 10.9% (1 September) and 14.8% (18 August).
This third consecutive increase follows 10 consecutive falls in the index since spring this year.
However only 36,050t of product was sold compared with almost 51,000t a year ago so analysts remain cautious about the scale of any real recovery.
Both of the previous two auctions also shifted significantly lower tonnages than at the corresponding sales a year earlier.
GDT auction 15 September 2015 – results
Weighted average selling price | Index change | |
Butter | US$3,108/t (£2,014/t) | up 13.3% |
Cheddar | US$3,206/t (£2,077/t) | up 10.7% |
Anhydrous milk fat | US$3,440/t (£2,229/t) | up 13.7% |
Butter milk powder | US$1,719/t (£1,114/t) | down 1.9% |
Skim milk powder | US$1,992/t (£1,290/t) | up 17% |
Whole milk powder | US$2,495/t (£1,617/t) |
up 20.6% |
Rennet casein | US$5,807/t (£3,763) | up 0.6% |
Lactose | US$499/t (£323/t) | up 3.1% |
The Global Dairy Trade online auction is owned by New Zealand co-op Fonterra. It holds two online auctions each month, with dairies from Europe, India, the USA, New Zealand and Australia selling commodities to 650 buyers from more than 90 countries.