Dairy prices have rebounded after four months of falls.
At Fonterra's latest monthly global auction overnight, the average selling price of all products jumped 17% to $US3562 ($NZ4792) a tonne.
That follows declines of 8% last month, 14% in July, 3.5% in June and almost 1% in May.
Whole milk powder prices rose 19%. Fonterra's global dairy trade manager, Paul Grave, says a record number of 151 bidders bought $US150 million ($NZ200 million) worth of powder product in just over two hours.
He says fires in Russia have caused a ripple effect in the dairy trade and tightened global supplies.
Mr Grave says there will now be two auctions a month.
BNZ economist Doug Steel says prices continue to be very volatile and it's difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the large rise, but
the results confirm Fonterra's expectation of higher prices later in the year.
Fonterra was on the money
Last month, Fonterra left its forecast milk payout for the season unchanged at $6.90 to $7.10 a kilogram of milk solids.
It said at the time that despite four consecutive monthly decreases at the auction, there were signs prices would improve later in the year.
And back in May, Fonterra forecast a higher payout for next season because of stronger demand in Asia and limited global supply.
