{"id":267773,"date":"2026-02-04T20:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:36:12","slug":"gdt-dairy-prices-jump-6-7-in-strongest-rise-since-2021-as-skim-milk-powder-and-butter-prices-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/267773\/","title":{"rendered":"GDT dairy prices jump 6.7% in strongest rise since 2021 as skim milk powder and butter prices up"},"content":{"rendered":"Butter prices were up 8.8% at US$5773 a tonne, butter milk powder rose 6.4% at US$3147 a tonne and anhydrous milk fat gained 5.0% at $6524 a tonne.<\/p>\n
Outside the reference products, mozzarella prices were up 10.6% at US$3694\/tonne while cheddar gained 3.8% at US$4772\/tonne.<\/p>\n
Richard Allen, president global ingredients at Fonterra, said the strong sale may have signalled a return to more normal inventory levels by customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing continued good, strong dairy demand out there in the world,\u201d Allen told NZME\u2019s The Country radio show.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina seems to be back in the market and there has been good participation across South East Asia and the Middle East as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still a lot of milk around and we have continued to see good milk production in New Zealand \u2013 up 2.5% in the 12 months to December \u2013 and the US and Europe are both up as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are seeing is that dairy does have a tendency to overreact and coming off a period of high prices, a lot of players were probably running inventory pretty low.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prices slumped going into the end of last year but have been firming so far this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices got to a point where it was pretty enticing and I think what we are seeing now is a correction back to normal inventory levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZX Dairy\u2019s head of dairy insights, Cristina Alvarado, said the scale of today\u2019s move \u201cmaterially exceeded\u201d market expectations.<\/p>\n
She said it reflected a combination of seasonally tightening supply from New Zealand, concentrated regional demand and constrained availability across several key commodities, rather than a sudden shift in global milk production trends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile milk output has continued to track higher year-on-year across the major exporting regions, this event highlighted that near-term product availability and demand dynamics remain the dominant pricing drivers,\u201d Alvarado said.<\/p>\n
New Zealand is moving toward the lower end of the 2026 milking season, and sharply reduced Fonterra offer volumes across wholemilk powder, skim milk powder and butter had heightened buyer urgency.<\/p>\n
Protein markets led the upside, driven primarily by global supply constraints rather than changes in milk flows.<\/p>\n
In the United States, strong cheese margins have continued to divert milk away from powder production, tightening non-fat dry milk availability and supporting higher domestic prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat tightness has increasingly flowed into international markets, lifting global skim milk powder sentiment,\u201d Alvarado said.<\/p>\n
North Asia accounted for 42% of total purchases at this morning\u2019s auction, up from 40% at the prior event, while European buying increased materially.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, the event reinforces that while global milk production trends shape the medium-term outlook, short-term GDT pricing continues to be driven by seasonal supply dynamics, regional demand concentration and limited substitution across origins,\u201d Alvarado said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith New Zealand volumes set to decline further into autumn, near-term price support is likely to persist, particularly for proteins and milk fats.\u201d<\/p>\n
In December, Fonterra adjusted its milk price forecast range from $9.00-$10.00 per kg of milksolids (kgMS) to $8.50-$9.50\/kgMS – the midpoint changing from $9.50\/kgMS to $9.00\/kgMS \u2013 in response to strong milk flows.<\/p>\n
GlobalDairyTrade Holdings is owned and managed as a strategic partnership between the European Energy Exchange (EEX), Fonterra and NZX, with equal one-third shareholdings.<\/p>\n
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our\u00a0Business newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Butter prices were up 8.8% at US$5773 a tonne, butter milk powder rose 6.4% at US$3147 a tonne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13991,78013,15408,95,806,1978,138,298,7224,10669,1342,53493,1437,78,76,23902,19332,60388,111,139,69,6777,3545,53494,12937,3383,5909,1436,7811,152310,39879,4248,165,1961,584,780,810,3608,5977,1530],"class_list":["post-267773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-13991","tag-78013","tag-almost","tag-and","tag-as","tag-auction","tag-business","tag-butter","tag-dairy","tag-delayed","tag-five","tag-gdt","tag-global","tag-in","tag-issue","tag-jump","tag-milk","tag-mornings","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-performance","tag-platform","tag-powder","tag-prices","tag-products","tag-results","tag-rise","tag-since","tag-skim","tag-strongest","tag-technical","tag-their","tag-this","tag-trade","tag-trading","tag-up","tag-were","tag-which","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267773","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=267773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}