Dairy markets remain buoyant this week, with the spot market in Europe.

Cheddar recorded the highest jump this week, rising by €100/t to hit €3,950/t, which is the highest price in over five months and the one commodity not to have had a bounce in recent weeks.

Powders have been going better and continue to do so, with whole milk powder (WMP) rising by €65/t to hit €3,534/t. WMP even increased marginally at Tuesday’s GDT pulse auction, increasing by 1% after it declined by 2.7% at the main auction last week.

Skim milk powder (SMP) increased by €90/t this week on the spot market to hit €2,620/t.

However, the GDT pulse auction recorded a decline in SMP prices of 5% compared with last week’s main auction.

Butter rallies

Butter prices continue to rally hard, rising €45/t this week to hit €5,395/t on the spot market.

It is still a long way off the crazy prices experienced in early 2022, but it is still a big improvement compared with where it was even two months ago, rising by up to 20%.

Even the Ornua PPI jumped for October, increasing by over 2c/l to hit 36.93c/l excluding VAT but including the Ornua value payment.

It seems that milk supplies globally are finally beginning to fall and that is what is driving the increase in price as opposed to rising demand.

Bad weather in Ireland and across Europe is a help in this endeavour, but high costs and falling milk prices are often a better deterrent in indoor systems. Dairy market outlook will be discussed at length at Dairy Day on 23 November.