Global Dairy Trade strengthens independence

Bill Shields, chair of the GDT Event Oversight Board, said that establishing the governance principles is an important milestone on the journey to implement best practice governance of GDT Events.

The new governance principles will enhance the board’s monitoring to: ensure conflicts of interest are identified and disclosed; provide transparency on methods used in the price discovery process; ensure appropriate control and reporting processes are in place; maintain anti-trust compliance and market surveillance practices appropriate to GDT Events as a global auction platform; and provide regular audit and review against the governance principles.

Increased transparency

“The new governance principles strengthen Global Dairy Trade’s independence, ensuring that the business is consistent with best practice for providers of market-based reference prices,”​ Shields said.

“The board’s composition, which includes representatives of leading global dairy industry participants and financial markets, means it is well placed to support the platform’s independence, as well as its continued development.”​

Eric Hansen, director GDT, said the new governance principles lead to increased transparency.

He added that one of the first outcomes from this work is the paper “Summary of price discovery process,” which gives stakeholders a deeper understanding of how the winning prices are discovered during the GDT Events auctions.