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The latest figures from the GDT price index show a 4% decrease in December since the previous quarter.
However, there was a recovery of 8.3% in the past six months.
The December quarter showed further volatility with a fall over three events followed by a rise over the last two events.
The price index at the end of December was 30% below the five-year average, and 3.5% lower than 12 months earlier.
Price changes by product
The GDT’s most traded product, whole milk powder (WMP), fell by 5.5% since the previous quarter, but achieved a 6.3% price increase year on year.
Prices for skimmed milk powder (SMP), its second most traded product, fell by 5.4% in December.
The prices for all other products were lower at the end of December 2015 compared with December 2014. The only exception was butter, which price remained the same.
In terms of supply and demand, the average offer quantity for the last quarter of 2015 was 35% lower than the average in the last quarters of 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The GDT provides globally recognised market-based benchmark prices for more than 30 dairy products. The GDT quarterly is an analysis of dairy-ingredient products over the three-month period covering October, November and December 2015.
EU level
The price of dairy commodities on an EU level are still on a downward trend, according to the latest figures released by the European Commission.
However, the average EU farmgate price appears to be recovering slightly, with raw milk prices up from 30.5c/100kg (29.6c/l) in October 2015 to 30.8c/100kg (29.9c/l) in November 2015 provisionally.
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