Global Dairy Trade, the world’s leader in global dairy trading, is broadening its services by hosting its first multi-seller pool which will offer US-sourced standard lactose products during the GDT Trading Event on 5 December 2017. The companies participating in the pool are three of the leading US lactose producers: Agropur Inc, Hilmar Ingredients and Valley Queen Cheese. Several others have expressed interest in taking part early next year. 

The service has been established following GDT’s consultation with US dairy buyers and sellers, exploring the feasibility of creating a multi-seller pool to offer supply of standard product specifications on GDT Events. While the identity of participating sellers will be published, some individual information will remain confidential, such as whether a seller is participating in a particular Trading Event, or each seller’s offer quantities.

Eric Hansen, Director of Global Dairy Trade, said the innovative concept gained strong support from buyers, sellers and market analysts. 

“Their feedback enabled us to confirm that US sellers valued greater protection of their individual commercial information. We also found that there was a strong appetite for improved price transparency on lactose products.

“Our Oversight Board subsequently voted in favor of the rule changes that enabled establishment of the multi-seller pool.”

“The high level of interest from US sellers indicates an increasing level of confidence in Global Dairy Trade’s role as a key platform for international trade in a broad range of dairy products, and as a relevant price discovery mechanism. We look forward to broadening the range of Ingredients products offered in multi-seller pools in 2018,” said Mr Hansen. 

Mike McCully, President of The McCully Group, has worked with GDT in the development of the multi-seller lactose pool. “There is a lot of interest in improving the price discovery for whey products in the US. With GDT offering lactose from Arla Food Ingredients for the past two years, lactose was a logical choice for a new US multi-seller pool on GDT Events.” 

David Curta, Vice President of Sales for Agropur Ingredients, said: “We look forward to participating as a seller in the multi-seller pool as we believe it is an opportunity to broaden our sales reach and to help develop a robust platform for marketing lactose.”

Jason Mischel, VP Sales and Business Development for Valley Queen Cheese, said: “We believe the new US lactose pool gives us an opportunity to find new customers as well as develop a better mechanism for determining the price of specific grades of lactose.” 

The US sellers are looking for new demand for their high-quality lactose products, offered as either Mesh 40, Mesh 100 or Mesh 200 specifications. Bidders can be assured that each plant is approved by USDA and FDA agencies and meets 3-A standards, GDT notes.