The sale of liquid milk contracts, run by Glanbia and the Fresh Milk Producers (FMP), closed on 5 October at €18.29/l/day of contract.

Some 126 farmers placed bids on the contracts, while merely 17 were selling. Between 9,000 and 10,000 litres were traded on the exchange.

This is the first time that an exchange has been used to sell liquid milk contracts. A system was put in place three years ago whereby liquid milk producers who wanted to expand their production could buy more quota at a set price. However, this time the contracts were sold on an exchange and in terms of volume they were oversubscribed by a ratio of 4:1.

The figure is equivalent to €83 per gallon, which is relatively low compared to just a few years ago when contracts were sold at €100 to €200 per gallon.