Prices at today’s Global Dairy Trade auction fell 6.3%. It follows a drop in prices at the last auction of 3.2%.
Skimmed milk powder (SMP) prices dropped 15.5% at today’s auction, while whole milk powder (WMP) prices also suffered with a decrease of 12.4%.
Cheddar, lactose and rennet casein all registered falls at today’s Global Dairy Trade event.
The only products that saw price increases were butter (1.2%) and butter milk powder (8.4%).
Analysts at ASB Bank in New Zealand had hinted that WMP prices could fall by 10%, with rain and higher New Zealand milk production putting a dampener on prices.
Meanwhile, the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show that Irish milk production fell by 4.6% in the first month of 2017.
Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 140.9 million litres for January 2017, compared to 147.6 million litres for the corresponding month in 2016.
The drop in January milk production comes after it was revealed that Irish milk production in 2016 increased by 4.4% on 2015 levels.
Last year, total Irish milk production stood at 6.6 billion litres. This compared to 6.3 billion litres in 2015.
Last January, the total milk sold for human consumption increased by 4.1% to 44.3m litres, the latest figures from the CSO show.
However, butter production dropped by 1% to 5,000t in January 2017 compared to the same month in the previous year, according to the CSO.
