BusinessDesk: Fonterra dairy prices gain for first time in two auctions

Prices of dairy products sold on Fonterra Cooperative Group’s GlobalDairyTrade platform rose, clawing back most of the losses from the previous two auctions.

The GDT-TWI Price Index increased 1.5 percent from the last sale a fortnight ago. The average winning price across all products rose to US$3,701 per metric tonne from US$3,654 at the Jan. 3 sale. The price of whole milk powder was unchanged at US$3,652. Whole milk powder typically accounts for more than half the product sold on the platform.

The dairy exporter sold 31,026 metric tonnes of product at the auction, for a total price of US$114.8 million. That’s the smallest volume sold at an auction since July 19, though still up by almost a third from a year ago.

Anhydrous milk fat prices rose 2.8 percent to US$4,084 per metric tonne, butter milk powder fell 4.3 percent to US$3,430, while cheddar gained 2.1 percent to US$3,776.

Milk protein concentrate declined 1.9 percent to US$5,880, rennet casein climbed 3.7 percent to US$8,069, and skim milk powder advanced 2.7 percent to US$3,351.

Fonterra’s skim milk powder achieved higher winning prices for similar products on the same delivery than US rival DairyAmerica. The New Zealand low heat product sold at US$3,430 per metric tonne for March delivery, compared to the US low heat regular product, which was bought at an average US$2,970. US medium heat regular and medium heat upgraded milk powder sold at US$2,970 and US$3,020 respectively for the March delivery, compared to US$3,410 for the New Zealand medium heat product.

There were 111 winning bidders from 161 participants across 12 rounds at the latest sale. The number of qualified bidders has increased to 533 from 513 at the last sale two weeks ago.