Battle for milk
OPINION: Fonterra may be on the verge of selling its consumer business in New Zealand, but the co-operative is not keen on giving any ground to its competitors in the country.
Through enhancements to the existing twice monthly Trading Events and the launch of two new services, Global Dairy Trade is continuing to innovate how the 66 billion litre international dairy market trades.
"GDT is now well positioned as a digitally driven multiservice business, offering a strong suite of complementary services that will deliver benefits to dairy buyers, sellers and the financial dairy trading sector," says Eric Hansen, director of Global Dairy Trade.
Global Dairy Trade's new multiservice offering will include:
· GDT Events, the current twice monthly auction
· GDT Marketplace, a new 24/7 dairy trading platform
· GDT Insight, a subscription service offering round-by-round and post-event data from GDT Events.
Global Dairy Trade (GDT) is also confirming the introduction a new Cream Group for Anhydrous Milk Fat and Butter on GDT Events from June.
This enhancement will allow sellers of AMF and Butter to offer more supply flexibility to better meet demand at each Trading Event.
"The introduction of GDT Marketplace will expand the quantity of dairy traded online, offering flexible 24/7 access to a broad range of high quality dairy products," he says.
"GDT Marketplace acts like a global shop front to connect buyers and sellers and allows transactions of any dairy product, at any time, with no minimum quantity constraints.
"This platform complements GDT Events, which continues to be best suited for trading large quantities of standard dairy products," he says.
GDT Marketplace will offer products via fixed price or closed tender listings, with Fonterra Cooperative Group confirmed as the first seller. GDT Insight offers a significant increase in the range of data from the twice monthly Trading Events, and is relevant to anyone with an interest in the global dairy market.
Nigel Brunel, director financial markets at OM Financial and member of GDT Events Oversight Board, says GDT is continuing its innovative approach to dairy trading and leadership in the global dairy sector.
"GDT's primary auction platform, GDT Events, is as relevant today for discovering reference prices for dairy commodities as it was when it launched eight years ago. The introduction of new services such as GDT Insight is a positive step for New Zealand's derivatives market," he says.
