Gdt Upturn Must Help Co-ops Stay on Track for 33c/l by Peak

IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Sean O’Leary said today’s upturn (+1.7%) in the GDT weighted average price for products to be traded between April and September reflected the absence of surprise increase in volumes made available, by Fonterra especially.

He said while SMP, modest quantities of which are traded through GDT, saw its price fall back by over 10%, WMP, the most important product, had made a good recovery from the previous auction (+2.9%) and butter (+4.9%) and AMF (+3%) had continued to show the solid upward price trend for butterfat.

“The results of today’s GDT, together with the fact that EU dairy prices continue to return around 36 c/l gross (before processing costs), should help Irish co-ops hold their confidence that, as predicted by some of their leaders in recent months, 33c/l will be a realistic average base milk price for 2017,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Co-ops must stay on track to deliver this before peak so that farmers have a realistic opportunity to achieve it,” he concluded.