Fonterra lifts forecast milk price mid-point, advance rate
Fonterra has bumped up its forecast farmgate milk price for the season on the back of rising commodity prices and a strong balance sheet.
NONE OF the proposed changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act will reduce the retail price of milk, say farmers.
Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson Willy Leferink says not one of the changes proposed to the DIRA by the Government will make milk any cheaper in the supermarkets.
He says some supermarkets are selling 2 litre milk at $3.
"At that price, it is identical to what Cole's has been selling milk for in Australia, once you take out our GST and exchange rate differences.
"What concerns me is that people seem to think farmers get all of the value from retail milk sales. I can tell you our share in a one litre carton of retail milk is around 360 millilitres.
"If someone's skimming the cream I'd suggest looking harder at the wholesale and retail ends. How come one supermarket can sell two litres of milk for $3 but another sells an identical bottle for $3.72?
"That's where the margins are, instead of the farmer who produce the milk in the first place."
Leferink wants more competition among supermarkets and processors.
"Precious few of the processors who take this milk, bottle it and then put it onto the shelves of supermarkets or dairies. Too few of these processors get milk from the farmgate and compete locally as they do internationally. We really need to know why," he says.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
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