“The NZX Dairy Futures market predicted milk powder prices would fall 6% at the November 17 event but the fall in GDT prices was larger than expected,” AgriHQ dairy analyst Susan Kilsby said.
NZ’s largest dairy export commodity whole milk powder (WMP) faired the worst at the overnight event, dropping by 11% to an average winning price of US$2148/t.
With the NZX Dairy Futures market showing little upside to the end of the season, WMP prices are now expected to reach just US$2400/t by July 2016, after having fallen US$400/t in the past fortnight, Kilsby said.
Skimmed milk powder (SMP) had the second largest price decrease of 8.1% to US$1851/t. Anhydrous milk fat was down 5.9% to US$3430/t, cheddar was down 5.0% to US$2874/t, rennet casein was down 4.4% to US$5250/t and lactose was down 2.0% to US$503/t.
Butter was the only commodity at the auction to see a price gain, coming up 5.6% to US$2709/t.
The number of qualified bidders as at last night’s event dropped right back to 609, the lowest level since April 2012, and down from last week’s number of 643.
There were 141 participating bidders at the event, the lowest level since the July 15 event earlier in the year.
The auction went for 13 rounds and lasted for one hour and fifty five minutes, which was longer than last week’s hour and a half auction. A total of 30,044t of product was sold.
The AgriHQ Farmgate Milk Price fell 44 cents to $4.27/kg MS comparing with Fonterra’s forecast seasonal price of $4.60/kg MS.
