It was another mixed week on the European spot market for dairy this week, as powders and cheese fell in price, while butter showed a bit of a rally.

Whole milk powder (WMP) decreased by just €5/t to €3,690/t and skim milk powder (SMP) decreased by €45/t to €2,535/t.

Butter was the only product to nudge upwards, increasing by €35/t to €5,480/t, arresting some of the declines shown last week.

The only product to substantially change was cheddar cheese, where €130/t was knocked off the price, which brings it back to €4,080/t, wiping out the gains made in the last four weeks.

How much to read into these quotes is debatable. What is missing from the data is the quantity being sold, an important factor so close to Christmas, considering that most dairy for the festive period was purchased weeks ago.

Most European traders are probably holding off until after Christmas to shift product, so if the quantity traded is low, the material impact of a price drop will be a small.

However, that presumes prices will bounce in the new year, which obviously remains to be seen, but is looking likely.

Meanwhile, at the last Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction of the year, the index increased by 2.3%, up from the last index rise of 1.6%. This is a really positive result.

WMP increased by 2.9%, butter by 9.9% and cheddar by 6.9%. The only real blip was SMP, which continues to struggle to keep up with WMP, falling by 1.3% at this auction. Just over 27,000t was traded, back on previous auctions.