The Ornua Purchase Price Index (PPI) has recorded another monthly decrease, with its indicative milk price falling by almost 3c/L.

The Ornua PPI for the month of December 2025 is 129.4, down from the previous month at 138.0.

The estimate of member co-ops processing costs was 9.1c/L in month, which is unchanged from the previous month.

The co-op noted that the 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.
Based on an updated methodology (from March 1, 2024) 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 added 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 37c/L, 5.1% VAT inclusive for milk of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein, which is net of Ornua costs to market.

This represents a drop from the previous month of 40.1c/L which Ornua said "reflect weak market returns for the month of December".

In addition, the ‘Ornua Value Payment’ payable to member co-ops in the month is €2.4 million, which equated to 7.8% of gross purchases in the month.

GDT

The latest PPI data follows a positive start to 2026 for the Global Dairy Trade (GDT).

The first GDT auction of the new year took place on Tuesday, January 6, and resulted in the price index increasing by 6.3% to 1,072 - up from 1,008 after the final trading event of last year.

The result marked a step change following nine consecutive falls in the GDT index since last August.

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