Friday, March 29, 2024

Whole milk powder leads drop in dairy product prices

Avatar photo
Dairy product prices declined at the Global Dairy Trade auction on concern that the spreading coronavirus, which originated in China, will crimp demand. 
The NZX forecast has a range of $9.42-$10.04/kg MS.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Markets have been nervous that coronavirus and the associated practices to prevent spread of the virus will stop China buying,” NZX senior dairy analyst Amy Castleton said in a note. “Given China is such a large destination for New Zealand product, this could have a large impact on our economy. However, there does not appear to have been a large drop in Chinese demand.”

The GDT price index shed 4.7% from the previous auction two weeks ago. The average price was US$3226 a tonne, compared with US$3434 a tonne two weeks ago. Some 29,006 tonnes of product was sold, down from 33,165 tonnes two weeks ago.

Whole milk powder dropped 6.2% to US$3039 a tonne. 

“Prices were down across all contract periods, though the nearest dated contracts fell the most,” Castleton noted. Even so, “nearly all of the whole milk powder on offer was sold. North Asia (which includes China) did buy a little less WMP than at the last event, but there was less volume on offer. China bought a larger volume than they did at the equivalent event last year.”

In the latest auction, butter milk powder dropped 5.2% to US$2886 a tonne, while anhydrous milk fat gave up 4.5% to US$4626 a tonne.

Skim milk powder retreated 4.2% to US$2907 a tonne.

Meanwhile, rennet casein jumped 6% to US$9956 a tonne, and cheddar rallied 6% to US$4302 a tonne. Lactose rose 2.5% to US$830 a tonne, while butter gained 0.2% to US$4258 a tonne.

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.

The New Zealand dollar last traded at 64.87 US cents as of 1.57pm in New York, compared with 64.61 US cents at 5pm in Wellington. 

There were 138 winning bidders out of 185 participating at the 12-round auction. The number of registered bidders was 525, up from 520 at the previous auction.

-BusinessDesk

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading