increase font size
Jason Herrick
A Southland dairy farmer is questioning Nestle’s offer of a small milk price premium for farmers who meet quality, safety and sustainability targets set by Fonterra.
Jason Herrick says an additional payment of just 1-2c/kgMS doesn’t make financial sense for farmers.
“As far as the offer goes, most farmers would have to invest a significant amount just to get that premium,” Herrick told Rural News.
“So, therefore it doesn't make good financial sense to do so. If you are going to dangle a carrot, make sure it is something descent to encourage change or what is going to be the actual beneficial outcome: zero.”
Global food giant Nestle will provide Fonterra farmers who achieve one of the three levels of Fonterra’s The Co-operative Difference framework during the 2023/24 season. The Co-operative Difference framework sets out the farming and business practices that will help farmers to stay at the forefront, such as quality, safety, and sustainability. It has three levels: the start, the mid-point, and the summit. The framework also rewards farmers that meet certain criteria across five focus areas – environment, animals, people & community, milk, and co-op & prosperity.
The agreement between Fonterra and Nestle comes one year on from the unveiling of a partnership designed to help reduce on-farm emissions. Fonterra recently announced an ambition of being net zero by 2050, with 2030 targets including a 30% intensity reduction in on-farm emissions.
Some Fonterra farmers have questioned whether the extra work around sustainability will result in premium payment for their milk. After Fonterra’s announcement of the Nestle premium, some farmers took to social media expressing anger at the paltry offer from Nestle.
Herrick says he believes there will be a reason Nestle offered the small premium “but don't want to comment as it may sound like a conspiracy to some”.
“Nestle would do far better if it cleaned up its own back yard, instead of focusing on a country that is doing far better environmentally than its home base.”
Editor's note: Fonterra has clarified that a majority (83% 2022/23 and 72% 2021/22) of its farmers already achieve The Co-operative Difference payment at some level.
In the past, much has been made of the concept of farm to fork, but an Australian expert in food science and marketing with experience in the dairy industry, Dr Angeline Achariya, says the reverse of this slogan is critical to win modern day consumers.
A four year trial has reaffirmed that mixing plantain into dairy pastures can help reduce nitrogen losses to freshwater while maintaining milk production and profitability, say researchers.
Fonterra has opened its upgraded Chengdu Application Centre, bringing New Zealand dairy expertise closer to customers in one of China's fastest-growing regions.
Tatua chair Stephen Allen says he leaves the co-op with a deep sense of gratitude for the people who have contributed to its success.
Federated Farmers president Colin Hurst and his family raised a glass of milk last week to toast the start of a new addition to their farming operation at Makihihi, south of Timaru.
Four years since it was first detected in New Zealand, researchers and growers now know much more about management of maize pest fall armyworm (FAW).
The Government has announced it will pause key parts of Waikato Plan Change 1 (PC1) in a decision that is set to give Waikato farmers a reprieve from new consenting and farm-planning requirements while the wider resource management system is overhauled.
OPINION: The time has come for the Government to back the organic sector.
Plan ahead and be patient. That’s the message to farmers and horticulturalists from the chairman of the NZ Agricultural Aviation Association, Kent Weir.
The industry is crying out for graduates with agricultural related degrees.
While GPS and guidance have become the norm and yield mapping and variable application continues to gain traction, most agricultural machinery manufacturers continue to expand their technology offerings, amalgamating the vast amounts of data being collected to streamline real-time and ongoing management decisions.
OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…
