Global Dairy Trade down a bit

globalDairyTrade results today were quite strong, though "down a bit" at minus 3.5% across the basket of products and contract periods.  Whole Milk Powder was down a modest 3.4% with Skim Milk Powder taking a hit at minus 6.2% - possibly because of the EU decision to release some of its government stocks to the market.

At an average winning price of US$3,880 the market is still very strong, underlying the strength of dairy at present.  According to an email from Henry van der Hayden this morning "The market is in close balance with global supply still tight right now".

Behind the scenes it is interesting to note the on-going development of the globalDairyTrade platform.  Over the past three months, "winning bids" have increased successively from 60 to 76 to 79 over night.  Clearly growing participation indicates additional interest which bodes well for Fonterra.

It is also interesting to note the increased volumes being offered for sale on the platform - again over the past three months Fonterra have offered 26,300 MT, 32,600 MT and last night 35,600 MT.  Forecast availability of product for the coming 12 months is also high at 530,000 MT.  This is now a significant proportion of Fonterra's trading business.

At MyFarm we will watch the development of gDT with interest - both as a sales platform and for the pricing announcements.  Both are a "tick" so far.