Dairy product prices advance for third straight auction

Thursday 3rd January 2019

Dairy product prices rose at the Global Dairy Trade auction, climbing for the third consecutive time amid a drop in supply.

The GDT price index gained 2.8 percent from the previous auction two weeks ago. The average price was US$2,986 a tonne, compared with US$2,844 a tonne two weeks ago. Some 28,651 tonnes of product was sold, down from 36,181 tonnes two weeks ago.

Whole milk powder rose 1.2 percent to US$2,705 a tonne.

“Prices increased across the board, which was partially due to a decline in offer volumes for all commodities at this event,” NZX dairy analyst Robert Gibson said in a note.

“Leading into this event whole milk powder offer volumes were down 22 percent on the previous event, while skim milk powder offer volumes were down 28 percent on the previous event,” Gibson said.

At the latest GDT auction, butter milk powder jumped 9.3 percent to US$3,252 a tonne, while skim milk powder rallied 7.9 percent to US$2,201 a tonne.

Butter increased 3.9 percent to US$4,076 a tonne, while anhydrous milk fat gained 3.9 percent to US$5,137 a tonne.

"There was with 2,000 tonnes of each commodity removed from the GDT platform for this event," Gibson noted.

Cheddar rose 3.2 percent to US$3,371 a tonne, while lactose advanced 1.6 percent to US$948 a tonne, and rennet casein added 1.3 percent to US$5,123 a tonne.

For sweet whey powder, no product was offered or sold, or no price was published for the last event, or on both of the two previous events.

The New Zealand dollar last traded at 66.58 US cents as of 1.50pm in New York, compared with 67.17 US cents at the previous close in Wellington.

There were 115 winning bidders out of 167 participating at the 15-round auction. The number of registered bidders was 515, up from 514 at the previous auction.

(BusinessDesk)

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