Modest increase in GDT price index after latest auction

The average Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index rose by 1.7% according to latest auction results published today (Tuesday, June 4).

There were a total of 164 bidders in the event which saw 17,637MTof product sold.

The GDT Price Index now stands at 1,162 today – compared to the previous index figure on May 21 of 1,143.

The latest result marks the the highest figure recorded since October 2022.

The average selling price was $3,824 per metric ton in the auction, which lasted for nearly three hours, during which there were 102 winning bidders.

The GDT auction, which is held twice every month, is a strong indicator of market sentiment and while the latest rise is marginal it will be well received by farmers.

It attracts on average buyers and sellers of dairy ingredients from 60 countries including Kerry Dairy Ireland which joined GDT in April of this year.

According to Kerry Dairy Ireland this provided it with “access to a worldwide pool of active buyers”.

GDT event

An analysis of the individual product sub-indices from the 357th event today shows that the biggest increase was in butter milk powder which jumped by 10.4% to $2,845/MT.

The next biggest rise was in skim milk powder (SMP) which rose by 3% to $2,722/MT.

This was followed by both whole milk powder (WMP) which saw a slight increase of 1.7% to $3,478/MT and the butter sub-index which similarly rose by 1.7% to $6,864/MT.

There was a less buoyant performance from cheddar and anhydrous milk fat (AMF) while lactose was the only product to record a decrease in the latest GDT event.

The cheddar sub-index increase by 0.2% to $4,248/MT while the anhydrous milk fat sub-index rose by just 0.9% to $7,417.

Lactose fell back by 1.9% to $792/MT.