Ahead of the auction the NZX Dairy Futures market indicated we could see a 4% drop in the whole milk powder for product with an April 2016 delivery date. Instead the price reduction for this particular contract was less than 3%," AgriHQ dairy analyst Susan Kilsby said.
The GDT Price Index lost 2.8%, with the average sales price falling US$41 to US$2235/t.
Anhydrous milkfat (AMF) was the only commodity which achieved a lift in price at the February 16 GDT event. The AMF Price Index lifted 1.5% overall to an average sales price of US$3527/t. The Lactose Price Index was unchanged from the previous auction with the average sales price at US$574/t.The Skim Milk Powder Price Index was down 1.4% with an average price of US$1762/t, while the WMP Price Index dropped 3.7% with an average price of US$1890/t. The index for cheddar fell a further 5.6% to an average price of US$2535/t and the Butter Index lost 2.3% with an average price of US$2834/t. Rennet casein recorded the largest fall dropping 11.5% at the February 16 GDT event with an average price of US$3852/t.
Since the beginning of the season the average price for WMP fetched at GDT has dropped by 18%. SMP has fallen by 11%, rennet casein has fallen 33%, cheddar has fallen 17%.
Over the same period AMF has risen by 13%, butter by 8% and the average price for lactose has risen by 6%.
Participating bidders at the event was up on last event to 151 compared to 144, although winning bidders were down to 115 from 124 the auction before.
The auction lasted for 14 rounds and lasted for just under 2 hours, the longest auction in the last five.
A total of 22,021t was sold at the auction compared to the 12 month average of 28,836t.
