Dairy prices rise 1.4 percent at GDT auction as cheese, butter surge

Wednesday 22nd January 2014

Dairy product prices rose at the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, led by surging prices for butter and cheese, two products which have posed problems for Fonterra Cooperative Group as their prices lagged whole milk powder.

The GDT Price Index increased 1.4 percent from the last sale on Jan 8. The average winning price was US$5,025 per tonne from US$4,953 a tonne at the last auction. Some 41,024 tonnes of product was sold, down from 46,418 two weeks ago, for about US$206.1 million

Butter climbed 10.8 percent to US$4,657 per tonne, cheddar gained 10.4 percent to US$5,133 per tonne, and milk protein concentrate advanced 7.2 percent to US$9,657 a tonne, leading gains in the index.

Rennet casein climbed 4.2 percent to US$12,390 per tonne, butter milk powder increased 3 percent to US$5,244 per tonne, and anhydrous milk fat gained 2.2 percent to US$5,641 a tonne.

The gains in value-add products will be helpful to Fonterra, the world's biggest dairy exporter, which last year complained of a production mismatch when prices for its whole and skim milk powder surged ahead of its higher value products such as cheese and butter.

The average winning price for whole milk powder, the biggest product by volume, increased 0.1 percent to US$4,943 per tonne, and skim milk powder slipped 0.5 percent to US$4,698 a tonne.

There were 134 winning bidders at the auction over 12 rounds. There were 193 participating bidders out of a total number of qualified bidders of 833.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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