Milk Powder Prices Prop Up Farmgate Milk Price
Milk powder prices are keeping farmgate prices up, helping processors offset the dip in milk fat prices.
The GDT price index rose 16.5% at last night’s auction, with products fetching an average price of US$2568/MT.
Fonterra’s key product Whole Milk Powder saw the biggest gain, the average price rising a massive 20.6% to US$2,495/MT.
Skim Milk Powder also saw a large increase of 17.0%, to an average price of US$1,992/MT.
Most other products saw gains. Anhydrous Milk Fat was up 13.7%, to US$3,440/MT, followed by Butter, which rose 13.3%, to US$3,108/MT and Cheddar up 10.7%, to US$3,206/MT.
Lactose and Rennet Casein saw minor gains, with the prices indexes up 3.1%, (US$499/MT) and 0.6%, (US$5,807/MT), respectively.
Butter Milk Powder was down 1.9%, to an average price of US$1,719/MT.
The auction saw 36,050 tonnes sold, up slightly on the last auction.
