August 22, 2014

Global dairy prices have flattened after a 40% fall, all together with a growing uncertainty over whether prices will rebound this year, New Zealand's news media Stuff said.

Overall, dairy prices fell by 0.6% at the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction. However, whole-milk powder, the biggest category by volume, increased by 3.4% in price. In Prices were on the decline in the previous three auctions, with an 8.4% drop at the auction on August 5, after an 8.9% drop on July 15 and 4.9% on July 1.

Fonterra recently cut its farm-gate milk price forecast for this season from NZD7 (US$5.88) per kilogramme of milk solids to NZD6 (US$5.04), equivalent to about NZD4 billion (US$3.36 billion) fall in dairy farmer income compared to the last season.