Fonterra, Sharesies join to make share trading easier
Fonterra is teaming up with wealth app provider Sharesies to make it easier for its farmer shareholders to trade co-op shares among themselves.
Fonterra is fast tracking $100 million worth of milk plant upgrades in Australia.
The co-op says extra capacity resulting from the upgrade will allow it to process an extra 500 million litres of Australian milk.
Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says its Australian business has been transformed – from a return of -8% return on capital a few years ago to 15% ROC.
“Our Australian business is now processing 2 billion litres of milk with a ROC of 11 to 12%,” he told the co-op’s annual meeting in Hawera today.
Fonterra’s Australian plants are running at full capacity, with a waiting list of suppliers.
“We are the largest milk processor in Australia right now,” says Spierings.
He says there have been developments in the Australian dairy industry; Murray Goulburn has been sold to Saputo and the deal needs shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.
Spierings says while other players will be seeking regulatory cleareances, Fonterra will not rest on its laurels.
“I have approved the $100m upgrade to be fast-tracked; $100m allowing us to process another 500m L of milk is a no brainer,” he says.
“We will drive the Australian business as hard as we can,” he says.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Two major red meat sector projects are getting up to a combined $1.7 million in funding from the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.