Westgold Butter Ranked Best Supermarket Butter in Consumer NZ Blind Taste Test
Westgold butter has been named New Zealand's tastiest in a blind tasting conducted by Consumer New Zealand.
Cheese, butter and milk powder manufacturing has been picked in the top five of 200 New Zealand industries to perform well this year, according to global business intelligence company IBISWorld.
The three categories are tipped to reach $17.1 billion in the 2017-18 year versus $16b in the previous year -- up 6.9%.
The top five were picked by IBISWorld in terms of expected growth, by far the highest earner and having the third-highest predicted growth rate behind multi-unit apartment and townhouse construction (9.2% growth) and geothermal, wind and other electricity generation (8.6%).
Samual Johnson, an Australian-based IBISWorld senior industry analyst, told Dairy News the recovery of global prices and increased output from farms are expected to contribute to growth.
“Infant formulas have grown particularly strongly; it is a premium area and a high growth area.
People have been investing in that and exports to SE Asia and China have grown strongly.
“Butter has not had the strongest performance over the past five years but is expected to grow in the current year. Global butter production is also expected to grow strongly this year.”
Recently Fonterra has increased its forecast milk prices so they obviously have a favourable outlook for milk prices in the current season, Johnson says.
“That supports our strong forecast for the year. It is mainly driven by restabilising of the global dairy market.”
If Russia were to lift its embargoes it would shake up the current stabilising of supply and demand and change export routes again, he says.
“But I wouldn’t say either way whether that is likely to happen over the next year or two.”
Zespri's sales of kiwifruit for the 2025 season have broken all past records.
Trainee orchard manager Luke St John has won the Central Otago 2026 Young Grower regional title.
James Blair, an agronomist for AS Wilcox, has won the 2026 Pukekohe Young Grower regional title.
Fifty-eight selected individuals, companies, and start-ups will exhibit their ideas and cutting-edge solutions at the 2026 Fieldays Innovation Awards, with Amazon Web Services (AWS), who joins the programme in 2026 as overall sponsor.
A rare piece of New Zealand adventure history will be on display at this year’s Fieldays, with a pair of socks worn by the late Sir Edmund Hillary to take pride of place at the Norsewear site this June.
This month's National Fieldays will again display a strong international flavour, with more exhibitors and overseas delegations in attendance.
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