A Year of Delivery for Fonterra
Fonterra’s 2026 financial year was a year of delivery, with record volumes of milk collected, processed and shipped by the co-op.
The co-operative is paying $12.42/kgMS for milk supplied by its 100 shareholder farms last season.
The previous season, Tatua paid $12.30/kgMS.
In a statement, Tatua’s outgoing chair Stephen Allen and chief executive Brendhan Greaney say the co-op achieved a strong result for the year, with record shareholder milk collections, further development of its specialised product categories, and the commissioning of Foods II, a major investment in additional cream products manufacturing capacity.
Trading conditions across international dairy markets were mixed during the year, they say.
“Although market pricing was broadly supportive, performance varied by product and region, with some customers affected by economic uncertainty, changing trade patterns and geopolitical disruption. Tatua's diversified range of products, markets and customer relationships helped moderate these impacts.”
The business activities resulted in earnings of $13.93/kgMS of shareholder supplied milksolids. Of this, $1.51/kgMS will be retained to support the co-operative’s future growth and resilience, resulting in a cash payout to shareholders of $12.42/kgMS.
Last month Fonterra announced its annual results. The co-op also paid $12.42/kgMS to its farmer shareholders last season. However, this included a Mainland special dividend of $16c/share and $2/share capital return from sale of its global consumer business.
Fonterra shareholders received a milk price of $9.69/kgMS plus a cash dividend of 57/share.
Synlait farmer suppliers also received $9.69/kgMS milk price with average incentives of $0.38/kgMS paid on top. The total average payment to Synlait’s farmers is $10.07/kgMS.
