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.
The proposed sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili is causing alarm among social media users.
Questions are also being posed about the Government’s $10 million soft loan to Westland Milk.
Yili will pay $588 million for dairy co-op Westland Milk, it was announced overnight.
Late last year, Westland Milk secured a $9.9 million loan from the Government to help build a new plant in Hokitika as part of the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund. Some farmers and politicians considered the loan to be using taxpayers as a bank.
It was revealed this month that the Treasury argued against the Government loan. One reason being that the dairy co-op was having problems obtaining a loan from its bank on acceptable terms and the Government would then be acting as a lender of last resort.
On Twitter the reaction to a co-op being sold off to a foreign company is being questioned.
Megan Hands described the Westland-Yili deal as awkward.
Well this is a bit awkward given Shane Jones just gave Westland a taxpayer funded loan... https://t.co/t3zoPS84Xd
— Megan Hands (@HandsMegan) March 18, 2019
On Facebook, Allen Collinson asked, "So what happens to the 10mill of tax payers money Shane Jones gave them??"
Dairy farmer Alexander Rentoul said he hoped the loan would be paid back with interest.
Another dairy farmer, Matthew Herbert, noted that the guaranteed minimum payout matching Fonterra could be a drawcard for Westland suppliers, who he says have often been paid 50c to a dollar less per kgMS than if they supplied Fonterra.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…