Fonterra FY26 Results: $9.69 Milk Price, $3.4bn Profit
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
A one litre cream product sold to kitchens, restaurants and bakeries all through Asia and China is a real growth market, says Fonterra's operations manager Canpac, Russell Muir.
The product is processed and packaged at Fonterra's 2-year-old UHT plant at Waitoa.
"Technical experts tell us the cream in these one litre containers is the best cream in the world in terms of quality. That is a real selling point for us in that market," says Muir.
One litre milks and creams produced at Waitoa are also sold for home use in China and Asia. Some product is in gift pack form sold in China and based around the quality of New Zealand milk, he says. The gift pack is a big seller at certain times of the year like Chinese New Year.
Waitoa also produces a range of single use products that are going into the same market in different varieties. There's standard, flavoured and high protein milks. Most of the single serve products are aimed at children. The plant also produces the standard single serve milk for New Zealand's Milk for Schools programmes which provide milk daily for school children.
Waitoa has five production lines in the plant running up to three at any one time.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.