Dairy prices keep rising in NZ Fonterra's auction

WELLINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - International milk prices rose for a fourth straight auction, New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's biggest dairy exporter, said on Wednesday.

Fonterra's Global Dairy Trade-Trade Weighted Index, which covers a range of 30 products and contract periods on offer, rose 2.4 percent, with an average selling price of $3,249 per tonne, taking its gains since early August to 16.2 percent.

Dairy prices have shown signs of strengthening, partially driven by global weather events, including the drought in the United States.

The index is still around 33 percent below its a near four-year peak in March last year as global commodity prices have retreated.

At the latest auction, prices were mixed with gains for whole milk powder, cheddar, skim milk powder, and rennet casein, but falls for butter milk powder and anhydrous milk fat.

Full details of the auction are at: www.globaldairytrade.info

Fonterra holds two auctions a month, with the next one due on Oct 2.

Last month, the co-operative cut its forecast payout for the just-starting 2012/13 season by 5 percent to between NZ$5.65-NZ$5.75 a kg of milk solids largely because of a strong local currency. See

Fonterra is owned by about 10,500 farmers and controls around a third of the world's dairy exports, generating more than 7 percent of New Zealand's gross domestic product.

Dairy produce makes up more than a quarter of New Zealand's NZ$48 billion annual export earnings, and the currency is often sensitive to movements in prices. (Reporting by Gyles Beckford)