Global Dairy Trade auction slump continues

Little room for a revival in global dairy markets until 2016 was envisaged by Thomas Bailey, dairy analyst at Rabobank, after prices slipped again in Tuesday’s GlobalDairyTrade auction, the international trading platform established by New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-Op.

The overall price fall of 1.3% continued a slump of more than 50% since early 2014, due to world-wide overproduction, subdued demand from important markets such as China, and Russia’s ban on US and European food imports.

The auction wasn’t all bad news, with prices falling only 0.2% for skim milk powder and 0.1% for whole milk powder — described by some analysts as “turning a corner”, after three months of plunging prices.