The Ornua Monthly Purchase Price Index (PPI) for February is 121.6 - down from the previous month at 121.9.

The PPI is a monthly indicator of market returns on dairy products purchased by Ornua - including butter, cheese, whole milk powder and protein products - relative to comparable returns generated in a base year (2010).

The estimate of member co-ops processing costs was 9.0c/L in month - which is unchanged from the previous month.

The co-op said that these estimated processing costs:

Are based on Ornua’s estimate of the average cost of processing the Ornua basket of products, which is not representative of any individual member co-op processor;
Exclude any allowance for member co-op processor margin;
Are based on an updated methodology (from March 1, 2024) which which uses Ornua’s initial estimate of member co-op processing costs from 2020 as a base and indexes the variable elements to external indices which will be updated quarterly in arrears.

Ornua has also advised that the figure will rise and fall quarterly in line with the movements in the variable costs (most notably energy) as per the external indices.

Ornua

After deducting estimated processing costs, Ornua’s PPI implies an indicative return of 34.1c/L, 4.5% VAT inclusive - down from the previous month of 34.2c/L - for milk of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein which is net of Ornua costs to market.

"The results reflects a stabilisation in market returns from January into February," the co-op stated today (Thursday, March 5).

In addition the ‘Ornua Value Payment’ payable to member co-ops in the month is €0.6 million, which equated to 1% of gross purchases in the month.

GDT

Meanwhile the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) Price Index recorded its fifth consecutive rise in 2026 earlier this week (Tuesday, March 3) after the latest trading event.

The result of the auction saw the index jump by a further 5.7% to 1,271.

This is another boost to the upward trajectory seen in the index since the start of the year.

The previous trading event held on February 17 resulted in the index increasing by 3.6%.