International milk prices on Tuesday fell at New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd’s auction for the second consecutive time, while volumes rose, the world’s biggest dairy exporter said.
Fonterra’s GDT Price Index, formerly the Global Dairy Trade-Trade Weighted Index, dropped 4 percent, with an average selling price of $4,794 per tonne, in the auction held on Tuesday.
The decline followed a 1.2 percent fall at the previous sale, said Fonterra, which is known for brands such as Anchor, Anlene and Fresh n’ Fruity.
A total of 41,086 tonnes was sold at the latest auction, an increase of 18.9 percent from the previous one, the cooperative said on its website (www.globaldairytrade.info).
The auctions are held twice a month, with the next one scheduled for March 18.
The auction results can affect the New Zealand dollar as the dairy sector generates more than 7 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
Fonterra, which is owned by about 10,500 farmers, controls nearly a third of the world dairy trade. (Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bangalore; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Von Ahn)
Source: Reuters
