In the Republic of Ireland, Lakeland Dairies has increased its milk price by 1.22c/L and will pay a base milk price of 39.22c/L, including VAT, for milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.
In Northern Ireland, Lakeland Dairies has increased its milk price by 1p/L and will pay a milk price of 31.5p/L. In a statement Lakeland Dairies said: "Global dairy markets remain stable with currently reliable levels of demand overall and a lower rate of growth in supply from the main dairy producing regions."Strong demand and consumption in Asia continues to be a positive factor."Lakeland Dairies added that it will continue to monitor the market closely in the coming weeks.
Global milk trade
Meanwhile, after more than two years of uninterrupted growth, global milk production is down, with growth expected to dip into negative territory in the final quarter of 2021.According to a recent dairy report from Rabobank, global milk supply growth halted in the second half of the year, bringing the market to levels not seen since 2014.
Farmgate milk prices are on the rise, in line with higher commodity prices worldwide, but increasing costs of inputs, lack of labour, and unfavourable weather will continue to limit production.Weather-related issues decimated Oceania’s peak production and margin erosion in the U.S and Europe slowed growth.
Meanwhile, production gains in South America have not been enough to offset these developments. The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) Index continued to tick-over after the latest auction event which took place last week (Tuesday, December 7).The latest event saw a slight increase in average price of 1.4%, up to $4,290/MT. In total, 31,092MT were sold, across 17 bidding rounds over the course of two hours and 25 minutes.
There were 104 winning bidders out of 167 participating. With these results, the latest index figure stands at 1,354, an increase from 1,335 at the last event.