Mozzarella matched skim milk powder\u2019s result, also rising 10.6% to an average of US$3694\/MT.<\/p>\n
Butter was not far behind, surging 8.8% to an average of US$5773\/MT.<\/p>\n
Butter milk powder lifted 6.4%, to an average of US$3147\/MT, and anhydrous milk fat climbed 5%, to an average of US$6524\/MT.<\/p>\n
Cheddar was also up, lifting 3.8%, to an average of US$4772\/MT, and lactose rounded out the positive reference products – up 1.5% to an average of US$1410\/MT.<\/p>\n
A total of 24,034 MT of product was purchased by 98 successful bidders, compared to 27821 MT and 114 winning bidders last time.<\/p>\n
Fonterra global ingredients president Richard Allen told The Country\u2019s Jamie Mackay the strong auction was a clear sign that global demand was robust, and a \u201cgreat result for our farmers back here in New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s renewed interest was a standout, Allen noting \u201creally good participation\u201d from Chinese buyers, alongside solid activity from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. <\/p>\n
Their return to the market helped underpin the sharp jumps in skim milk powder and butter.<\/p>\n
Despite recent talk of a global milk glut, Allen said the picture was more nuanced.<\/p>\n
Listen below:<\/p>\n
While New\u202fZealand\u2019s milk production was tracking higher \u2014 up around 2.5% in the year to December \u2014 and Europe had also seen growth, he believed buyers had previously run inventories unusually low.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing is dairy does have a bit of a tendency to overreact, and I think coming out of high prices, a lot of buyers around the world were probably running inventory pretty low. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got prices to a point where it was pretty enticing, and I think what we\u2019re seeing now is maybe a bit of a correction back to normal inventory levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
A $10 payout?<\/p>\n
Allen highlighted the season ahead, with remarkably green pastures across the North Island after persistent summer rain, and conditions looked promising for another strong production year. <\/p>\n
Mackay asked whether this put \u201c$10 back on the table\u201d.<\/p>\n
Allen remained cautious.<\/p>\n
He said Fonterra would \u201crun the numbers\u201d \u2014 including the impact of recent foreign exchange movements \u2014 before making any call on revising the farmgate milk price.<\/p>\n
On December 18<\/a>, Fonterra further narrowed its 2025\/26 farmgate milk price forecast to a range of $8.50-$9.50\/kgMS, with a midpoint of $9 per kgMS.<\/p>\n This follows Fonterra cutting its 2025\/26 farmgate milk price forecast to a range of $9$10 per kgMS, with a midpoint of $9.50 per kgMS on November 25<\/a>.<\/p>\n The co-op\u2019s opening forecast on May 29<\/a> was $10 per kgMS, with a wide range of $8-$11 per kgMS, but was narrowed to $9-$11 per kgMS, with a midpoint of $10 per kgMS, on August 21<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fonterra paid $10.16 per kgMS for the 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mozzarella matched skim milk powder\u2019s result, also rising 10.6% to an average of US$3694\/MT. Butter was not far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2246,83636,78013,2840,806,1978,2372,138,13982,7224,17769,53493,1437,14236,13986,48746,700,19332,22387,111,139,69,428,6507,53494,12937,21938,584,810,14036,102],"class_list":["post-266960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-2246","tag-83636","tag-78013","tag-across","tag-as","tag-auction","tag-board","tag-business","tag-continues","tag-dairy","tag-dairys","tag-gdt","tag-global","tag-held","tag-index","tag-jumping","tag-latest","tag-milk","tag-momentum","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overall","tag-overnight","tag-powder","tag-prices","tag-surges","tag-trade","tag-up","tag-whole","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}