GlobalDairyTrade (GDT), the online trading platform for international dairy commodities, has announced that it passed the milestone of US$10 billion in cumulative sales at its most recent auction.
GlobalDairyTrade Director Paul Grave said the milestone reflects consistent steep growth in volumes traded through the platform, which earlier this month also marked its fifth year of trading.
“With dairy products from five continents now offered to over 800 registered bidders from 90 countries, GlobalDairyTrade is certainly living up to the global aspect of its mission,” said Graves. “More than 800,000 metric tonnes have been traded through GDT’s fortnightly auctions in the past year alone across nine categories of product.”
A typical auction event lasting around two hours will sell enough product to completely fill a container ship holding around 2,475 standard 20 foot containers, according to GDT, valued at between US$100 and $200 million.
GlobalDairyTrade is open to all qualified buyers and sellers in the market. It operates at arm’s length from its owner Fonterra with fortnightly auctions conducted on behalf of GDT by CRA International in accordance with market rules overseen by an independent advisory board of sellers and buyers.
Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings, said GlobalDairyTrade was one of the most important innovations he has seen during his more than 25 years in the dairy industry.
“GDT provides a reliable platform for price discovery, setting a baseline for globally traded dairy commodities that enables us to focus our efforts on value add,” said Spierings.
R.S .Sodhi, managing director of Amul (Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation), said joining GDT as a seller has been a great decision for the company.
“Joining GDT has enabled us to market our products globally to hundreds of buyers all around the world, in an efficient and transparent way,” he said. “We can see Amul‘s credibility has already improved in the global market through our association with GDT.”
Other producers selling product on GDT include Dairy America, Arla Foods, Murray Goulburn and Eurosérum.
“By helping discover a reference price for international dairy commodities every fortnight, GDT has brought a lot of transparency to international prices which were previously opaque,” continued Grave. “Previously, many deals were done in a way that made it hard to find a reference price which reflected true levels of supply and demand in the market.”
“We are delighted that GlobalDairyTrade has tapped into a genuine market need for the dairy industry. As technology evolves we aim to continuously improve the service we offer, so that GlobalDairyTrade stays an essential part of the global dairy industry landscape for many years to come.”
