Prices Fall Again at Global Dairy Trade Auction

In market news this week, there was another fall in the Global Dairy Trade price index at the latest auction on Tuesday.

The GDT price index averaged $2,345 (USD/MT, FAS), a fall of 7.9 per cent from the previous auction. This was the third event in a row to register a fall, contrasting with the strong rises in the index seen between August and October.

Skim Milk Powder and Whole Milk Powder were down by 8.1 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively, the largest falls of the event.

UK levy board AHDB Dairy commented that although global production is now starting to slow down, the large supplies that have been built up during the downturn mean a recovery in prices may be a while off - click here to read more.

Meanwhile, Arla UK announced this week that the Morrisons 'Milk for Farmers' range is selling “multiple times” more than expected.

The brand was set up to run alongside Morrisons' normal milk range, and costs an extra ten pence per litre, with the money going to back to farmers in the Arla co-operative, which supplies the milk to the retailer.

The brand has been labelled misleading for the use of the British flag on the bottle, whilst the extra money will actually be shared out amongst all of Arla's European farmer owners.

However, the statement by Arla said that consumers are demonstrating strong support for the range, showing that they are willing to help dairy farmers - read more.