The Ornua Monthly Purchase Price Index (PPI) for the month of March is 121.9, up from the previous month at 121.6.

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).

Ornua’s estimate of member co-ops' processing costs was 9c/L in month - the same figure of 9c/L for the previous month.

Ornua stated that it should be noted 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:

uses Ornua’s initial estimate of member co-op processing costs from 2020 as a base;
indexes the variable elements to external indices which will be updated quarterly in arrears.

Will rise and fall quarterly in line with the movements in the variable costs (most notably energy) as per the external indices.

After deducting estimated processing costs, Ornua’s PPI implies an indicative return of 34.2c/L, 4.5% VAT inclusive (up from the previous month of 34.1c/L) for milk.

This is at constituents of 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein which is net of Ornua costs to market.

The results reflect steady overall market returns for the month of March, according to co-op.

Also, the ‘Ornua Value Payment’ payable to member co-ops in the month is €5.6 million, which equated to 7.2% of gross purchases in the month. 

The co-op stressed that the PPI relates to product settlements/payments for the month and for reasons of seasonality is not directly aligned with milk production and payment.