The claims follow the publication of the results from the New Zealand-based cooperative’s globalDairyTrade internet sales platform, which suggest that costs for milk powder fell by 8.2 per cent over the same period during the previous month.

Kelvin Wickham, managing director of the group’s global trade said that prices, which reached US$1,1851 per tonne, were being put under pressure from weak demand.

“However, supply is slowing, inventories are running down and we believe we're in the trough of the market,” he stated.