The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) Price Index has recorded its fourth consecutive rise in 2026 after today's (Tuesday, February 17) trading event.

The result of the auction saw the index jump by a further 3.6% to 1,202.

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

The previous trading event held on February 3 resulted in the index climbed by 6.7%.

This followed a 1.5% increase on January 20, and a 6.3% increase on January 6, the first index update for the year.

GDT

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

A total of 167 bidders took part in today's auction, which saw 22,240 metric tonne (mt) of product sold, compared to 24,034mt in the previous trading event.

The average selling price was €4,028/mt in the auction, which lasted for three hours and 44 minutes. There were 105 winning bidders and 23 bidding rounds.

The event saw increases in the average prices for the majority of the dairy commodities offered for sale.

The results show a 10.7% rise in the weighted average price of butter to €6,347/mt.

There was a 7.8% rise in the price of lactose to $1,519/mt, while mozzarella was up 5% to $3,879/mt

Anhydrous milk fat increased by 3.8% to $6,751/mt, skim milk powder (SMP) was up 3% to $2,973/mt and whole milk powder (WMP) to rose 2.5% to $3,706/mt.

There was a 1% dip in the average price for cheddar to $4,736/mt.

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