Arla Foods is set to begin offering mozzarella blocks Global Dairy Trade (GDT) events to UK and EU based customers from next month.
The global dairy cooperative is owned by more than 9,700 farmers in seven countries in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The processor will now add mozzarella blocks to its offering starting from the September 17 auction.
In May, Arla Foods announced that it was investing over £300 million between five of its UK sites with the aim of boosting UK manufacturing and the future of British dairy.
In addition to previously announced plans for its Taw Valley site, the co-op said it will update and expand its dairies and creameries at Lockerbie, Stourton, Aylesbury and Westbury.
Arla Foods currently operates nine production sites across the UK making a range of milk, butter, cheese and other dairy products.
GDT
GDT runs trading events twice per month for core dairy products, bringing together buyers and sellers of dairy ingredients from 70 countries to trade US$2-3 billion annually.
Following the last auction on August 20, the GDT price index jumped by 5.5%, which was the third consecutive increase for the index.
The index suffered a sharp drop of almost 7% following the auction on July 2.
Anhydrous milk fat, butter, cheddar, lactose, mozzarella, skim milk powder (SMP), and whole milk powder (WMP) were all offered at the most recent trading event, with the majority of products recording an increase in average price.
There was a 7.2% increase in average price for WMP to $3,482/MT, mozzarella was up by 5% to $4,810/MT and anhydrous milk fat increased by a similar percentage to $7,244/MT.
The average price for butter was up by 3.7% to $6,706/MT, SMP rose by 4% to $2,636/MT and there was a 2.7% increase in the average price of lactose to $945/MT.
Cheddar was the only product to record a drop in average price, albeit a very slight decrease (-0.2%) to $4,274/MT.
