"Our" business?
OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.
HAVE LYTTELTON port's problems finally become too much for Fonterra?
Kotahi – the Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms' freight and logistics joint venture – committed container volume to Timaru which "is expected to quickly exceed the 80,000 TEU shipped across PrimePort's wharves when traffic last peaked in 2008".
Fonterra's 2010 decision to rail containers 170km from Clandeboye, South Canterbury to Lyttelton, instead of 30km to Timaru, saw Timaru PrimePort's volumes plummet with the loss of jobs and subsequent sale of the container business to Port of Tauranga.
Announcing a 10-year alliance with Kotahi this week Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns said Timaru is set to become an important South Island freight gateway thanks to the Kotahi deal and investments in a new freight hub at Rolleston, southwest of Christchurch.
"Kotahi's cargo commitment, which includes container traffic from customers around Timaru, gives Port of Tauranga the certainty to proceed with infrastructure to accommodate 6500 TEU ships (at Timaru). Timaru, as a key destination for a revitalised coastal shipping industry, will play a growing role in marshalling South Island export traffic north for these ships."
There are rail connections between Timaru, Rolleston, and Fonterra's expanding Darfield site. Services from Lyttelton were disrupted by the Canterbury earthquakes and more recently concerns about double-handling of freight due to limited container capacity on the port side of the Lyttelton tunnel.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.