Commerce Commission files proceedings against Westpac
The Commerce Commission has announced that it has filed proceedings against Westpac New Zealand.
At least one bank is forecasting an $8 opening forecast farmgate milk price for the next season.
Dairy prices are holding most of their gains from earlier in the year and remain remarkably high, a good omen for the coming season.
Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny is forecasting an $8/kgMS opening forecast and ASB has boosted its forecase by 20c to $7.50/kgMS.
Penny now expects dairy prices to start the 2021-22 season firmly on the front foot.
Penny points out that in milk price terms, the last GDT auction and NZ dollar rate equated to a milk price of over $9/kgMS. Since March, Westpac has lowered its NZD/USD forecasts by around two cents over the season, adding further upward impetus to milk price forecasts in NZ dollar terms.
"From the stronger starting point, we have built in a moderation of global dairy prices over the New Zealand dairy season.
"Specificallly, we forecast for whole milk powder prices (WMP) to fall by 18% over the season. In other words, we have built in a supply response to the higher milk price."
Another factor that could keep milk prices high is a very modest supply response to the high milk price by historical standards.
"As such we expect that dairy prices will remain stronger for longer," says Penny.
He notes that in New Zraland, dairy supply is constrained for a range of reasons, including environmental constraints, limits on cow numbers, limits on fertiliser usage and higher compliance costs.
"As a result, we expect modest production growth next season of 2%."
On the demand side, Penny expects robust demand to continue.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
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.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.