The positive start to 2026 for the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) has continued following the latest trading event which took place today (Tuesday, January 20).

The second auction of the new year resulted in the GDT price index increasing by a further 1.5% to 1,088 - up from 1,072 after the previous trading event two weeks ago.

The GDT auction, which is held twice in every month, is a trading platform for core dairy products.

GDT

A total of 164 bidders took part in today's auction, which saw 27,821 metric tonne (mt) of product sold, compared to 29,282mt in the previous trading event.

The average selling price was €3,615/mt in the auction, which lasted for just over two hours, during which there were 114 winning bidders and 19 bidding rounds.

The event saw mixed results in terms of the average prices of all dairy commodities offered for sale.

The results show a 3% jump in the weighted average price of anhydrous milk fat to €6,191/mt. This follows a significant jump of 7.4% during the previous auction.

There was a 1% rise in the price of whole milk powder (WMP) to $3,449/mt, while skim milk powder (SMP) was up 2.2% to $2,615/mt.

Butter saw a 2.1% increase resulting in a price of $5,314/mt.

However, there were dips in average prices, with mozzarella falling 2.3% to $3,340/mt, cheddar was back 1.4% to $4,594/mt and lactose was down 1.8% to $1,385/mt.

Butter milk powder (BMP) was not offered for sale during today's event.