The golden run of results for Fonterra in their fortnightly Global Dairy Trade auction has ended.

Prices across all products fell on average more than 8 percent on Tuesday night as the price per tonne of product lost almost $100 US.

Whole milk powder recorded the biggest fall, dropping 12.9 percent on the previous auction.

Fonterra’s Global Dairy Trade manager Paul Grave says despite the fall, the average price of more than $4,400 US per tonne is extremely high, and shows a pleasing overall upwards trend.

“I think it’s just a price correction, we are expecting the market to be volatile.

“This is evidence of that volatility, we’ve seen a lot of rises since August last year.

“The market price has risen steadily over that time, and that volatility is not unexpected.”

Paul Grave says demand across the board was consistent, but we could start to see the high prices affecting things in the medium term as the market corrects itself.

“We don’t have a crystal ball, but as prices rise, demand may be affected.

“If prices are attractive to farmers globally, they will incentivise to increase their supply too.

“So then we have those supply levels head up and that will correct the market.”