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The price index for whole milk power (WMP) increased by 3.5% with an average WMP price of $2,998 at Tuesday’s GDT auction in New Zealand.
Prices for skim milk power (SMP) were up by 7.1%, with an average weighted price at $2,044.
Butter continued to trade strongly with the index up by 2.9% on Tuesday with the average butter price finishing at $4,892.
Cheddar
The price index for cheddar jumped by 6.0% to an average price of $3,462 and lactose was up 1.2% to $935.
The anhydrous milk fat index fell back marginally by 0.5% to an average price of $5,930 and rennet casein dropped by 3.8% to $6,020.
Overall, there were 22,927mt of product sold over 14 bidding rounds at the latest auction. This represents an 1.3% increase compared with 22,642mt sold at the last GDT event a fortnight ago.
Previous results
Tuesday's result follows on from gains in the GTD price index at the last two events. The price index rose by 1.6% a fortnight ago and by 1.7% two weeks before this.
Last week, Irish processors began announcing milk prices for March with Glanbia, Lakeland Dairies and Kerry all holding their March milk prices.
In interviews with the Irish Farmers Journal last week, Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe and LacPatrick CEO Gabriel D'Arcy both said that dairy markets remained fragile and urged caution for milk prices for the rest of 2017.
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