Ornua purchase price index (PPI) for February has been announced at 121.6, down marginally from the January PPI of 121.9.

The slight decline represents a month-on-month fall of 0.25% in the PPI’s latest reduction.

The index has been on a continuous downward curve since June 2025, although February’s drop is the lowest proportional month-on-month reduction since the mid-2025 collapse in milk prices.

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Ornua has said that it estimated member co-ops’ processing costs for February to stand unchanged from January’s 9.0c/l.

The PPI with the processing cost above implies an indicative market return of 32.63c/l ex-VAT for member co-ops at standard constituents of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein net of Ornua costs to market.

Stabilisation

“The results reflects a stabilisation in market returns from January into February,” Ornua said.

The processors’ co-op added that its value payment to member co-ops for February was €0.6m, which equated to 1% of gross purchases in the month and 1.3% on a year-to-date basis.

It also reiterated that its estimated processing cost is based off Ornua’s basket of products, which is not representative of any individual member processor and that this figure excludes a processor margin.

Positive GDT moves

The dairy market lift witnessed in the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auctions has yet to play out in Ornua’s PPI.

Tuesday’s GDT index increased by 5.7%, driven by price increases for milk powders and butter.

The GDT’s latest auction index was 26% higher than the level set at the last trading event of 2025 after five consecutive index increases.