“The fall in dairy prices could trigger a round of downward revisions to analysts’ dairy payout forecasts, with the bottom of Fonterra’s current $7.00 to $7.60 range in their sights,” Bank of New Zealand interest rate strategist Nick Smyth said in a note.
“We currently project $7.40, but subject to downward reassessment,” Smyth added.
The GDT price index dropped 2.9% from the previous auction two weeks ago. The average price was US$3176 a tonne, compared with US$3226 a tonne two weeks ago. Some 28,181 tonnes of product was sold, down from 29,006 tonnes two weeks ago.
Whole milk powder fell 2.6% to US$2966 a tonne.
In the latest auction, anhydrous milk fat plunged 5.5% to US$4379 a tonne, while butter decreased 3.9% to US$4090 a tonne.
Skim milk powder gave up 2.6% to US$2840 a tonne, while rennet casein eased 0.9% to US$9873 a tonne.
Bucking the trend, cheddar climbed 5.3% to US$4526 a tonne.
Lactose was at US$822 a tonne. No change in price was given.
Buttermilk powder was not offered at this event.
For sweet whey powder, no product was offered or sold, or no price was published for the last event, or on both of the two previous events.
There were 138 winning bidders out of 175 participating at the 18-round auction. The number of registered bidders was 528, up from 525 at the previous auction.
–BusinessDesk
