What Would Synlait Be Worth to Fonterra or a2 Milk?
Speculation of a possible joint move by Fonterra and a2 Milk to buy Synlait raises a much bigger strategic question, says agribusiness expert Dr Nic Lees.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says varied weather and challenging growing conditions across many parts of the country earlier in the season saw actual milk collections down on the same period last year.
“We were expecting conditions to improve over the Christmas-New Year period, but this has not evaluated.
“As a result, we have revised our 2021/22 forecast down 1.6% to 1,500 million kgMS.”
In response to the lower milk supply, Hurrell says at this stage no change is needed to the volume of product the co-op is offering on the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) platform.
“Due to the high demand for off-GDT sales, we had already reduced the volume we were offering on the GDT platform earlier in the season,” Hurrell says.
He says the co-op will continue to monitor the situation and carefully manage its sales both on and off-GDT.
