Prices at last night’s auction were up just 1.7% overall.
Analysts yesterday predicted a rise of 11.8% in the price for whole milk powder but that price was down 0.2% to US$2782.
Currency traders had also expected a rise with the kiwi dollar rising to 73.23 US cents at 5pm yesterday from 72.88 cents at 8am.
The biggest rise at the auction was for butter milk powder. It was up 7% to US$2276. Anhydrous milk fat was up 4.6% to US$4998, lactose was up 3.7% to US$815, butter 3.6% to $US$3892, skim milk powder 3% to US$2293, cheddar 2.2% US$3518 and rennet casein 2% to US$6893.
In all 129 bidders bought 35,086 tonnes of products.
“The result, particularly for WMP, is disappointing, as we have recently been seeing good momentum in dairy commodity prices – prices for WMP especially,” AgriHQ analyst Amy van Ossenbruggen said.
“A steadier increase rather than the large jumps of the last few GDT events will be more supportive to the market, however.”
Though the SMP price lifted it was still not quite up to the expectations of the Derivatives market. It had expected a lift of 4.5% in the price of New Zealand-sourced C2 medium heat SMP, which increased 2.3%.
But AMF stood out again. The price for C2 regular grade AMF was up 5.2%, a greater increase than the 1.9% expected by the Derivatives market.
The Butter Price Index also performed comparatively well, with a 3.6% increase. However, the C2 unsalted butter price was flat with just a 0.1% increase.
“Demand for fats has been stronger than demand for milk powders. Short supply from the European Union and lower prices from Oceania have supported AMF and butter prices.”
Most of the demand overnight was from China. There were more winning bidders from that region and Chinese bidders bought more product than at the September 6 auction.
Demand from China had been steady.
