DAIRY giant Arla is to hold its farmgate milk price for February.

The company's on-account price for conventional and organic milk from February 1 will stay at 37.58p/litre for a standard manufacturing litre and 45.03p/litre for organic milk.

The manufacturing price is based on collection every other day of top quality band milk, with a minimum annual production of 1m litres at 4.2 percent butterfat and 3.4 percent protein.

Other buyers that have declared prices for February are in a range from 33p/litre to 34.5p/litre before seasonality.

European commodity prices for cheese and powder continued their strong development in December, while butter markets stabilised, said Arla Foods amba board director and farmer Arthur Fearnall.

“While this month [February] is a hold for our milk price, a positive outlook will be welcomed by our farmer owners,” he said.

“The value of producing milk is increasing like never before and our farmers are continuing to experience significant inflation.

“This is impacting not only short-term operations, but also longer term costs which are challenging the viability and investments needed to stay at the forefront of sustainable farming.”