Strong growth for Yili's NZ operations
Chinese dairy giant Yili Group says its New Zealand operations are on track for strong revenue growth in 2025 after recording significant year-on-year growth for the first half of the year.
Westland Milk Products chief executive Toni Brendish has been keeping her promise to get the company back on its feet after a couple of troubled financial years.
This saw the departure of the previous chief executive and chairman.
Brendish told Dairy News she has reconfigured the senior management team with the appointment of a new general manager in China, Garry Yu.
A Chinese national, he has wide experience of the China market, Brendish says.
Most recently he was the managing director of Griffith Foods, Greater China, and prior to that worked in Coca Cola China, Unilever Bestfoods, Rich Products and Nestle China in sales, marketing, R&D.
“Garry Yu has significant local Chinese experience,” Brendish says.
“And we have a new chief operations officer joining us next month, a new chief financial officer joining us in August, and we have put in a new supply chain general manager, Raul Elias-Drago.”
Brendish says WMP has been working on sales and operating planning and she has appointed a new person in this role, reporting directly to her.
Her focus has been on closing the gap and ensuring a competitive payout to producers in the range $6.40 - $6.80/kgMS.
“We are comfortable with that number looking at what we have done in the business. The team is working incredibly hard to get those costs under control so we feel confident about what is happing.”
Brendish wants WMP to create more added value products and to promote its West Coast heritage and location.
Ashburton cropping and dairy farmer Matthew Paton has been elected to the board of rural services company, Ruralco.
The global agricultural landscape has entered a new phase where geopolitics – not only traditional market forces – will dictate agricultural trade flows, prices, and production decisions.
National Lamb Day is set to return in 2026 with organisers saying the celebrations will be bigger than ever.
Fonterra has dropped its forecast milk price mid-point by 50c as a surge in global milk production is putting downward pressure on commodity prices.
The chance of a $10-plus milk price for this season appears to be depleting.
Keep focused on things that can be controlled on farm.
OPINION: As the COP30 talkfest ended, claims are surfacing that the controversial Avenida Liberdade - a four-lane 13km highway which…
OPINION: Milking It reckons New Zealand should take a bow after winning the 'Fossil of the Day' award at COP30…