International milk prices went up for the second time in a row, while volumes fell in the latest auction held by New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter.
Fonterra’s GDT Price Index, formerly the Global Dairy Trade-Trade Weighted Index, rose 3.9 percent, with an average selling price of $4,973 per tonne, in the auction held on Tuesday.
The jump followed a 0.1 percent rise in the previous sale, said Fonterra, which is known for brands such as Anchor, Anlene and Fresh n’ Fruity.
A total of 51,944 tonnes was sold, down 0.7 percent on the previous auction, the co-operative said on its website (www.globaldairytrade.info).
The auctions are held twice a month with the next one due on Dec. 17.
The auction results can affect the New Zealand dollar as the dairy sector is a major export earner for the country and generates more than 7 percent of gross domestic product.
The New Zealand milk co-operative, owned by around 10,500 farmers, controls nearly a third of the world dairy trade. (Reporting by NR Sethuraman and Shruti Chaturvedi in Bangalore; Editing by Anthony Barker)
Source: Reuters