Revamped Fonterra to be ‘more capital-efficient’
Fonterra chair Peter McBride says the divestment of Mainland Group is their last significant asset sale and signals the end of structural changes.
The closed tender bid process for the Gold3 licence for attracted strong participation, with over 1000 growers bidding for licence, Zespri says.
One aspect of the tender process is a good spread of hectares among growers, with 266 successful bids and an average size of bids well under 2ha for each category, it says in its Kiwiflier newsletter.
Zespri chairman Peter McBride says, "It is satisfying to see relatively broad participation in the process. The level of participation and the high median price of successful bids reflect, I believe, the strong level of confidence in the product."
The average size of the successful bid was 1.31ha for the restricted tender (for Green and Green14 conversions) and 1.77ha for the unrestricted tender.
The result indicates a good level of accessibility in the process, with just one successful bid for more than 10ha of licence. Both the restricted and unrestricted tenders were oversubscribed, and the available area was allocated to the highest priced valid bids.
The regional spread of licence allocation was concentrated in the Bay of Plenty but there were allocations also in Gisborne, Waikato, Auckland, Coromandel, Hawkes Bay and Northland.
Zespri will provide an update on the performance of Gold3 in the markets later in the season. It is expected that in November there will be sufficient information to provide the industry a clear signal regarding the potential release of Gold3 hectares
According to the latest Federated Farmers banking survey, farmers are more satisfied with their bank and less under pressure, however, the sector is well short of confidence levels seen last decade.
Farmer confidence has taken a slight dip according to the final Rabobank rural confidence survey for the year.
Former Agriculture Minister and Otaki farmer Nathan Guy has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy (SATE).
Alliance Group has commissioned a new heat pump system at its Mataura processing plant in Southland.
Fonterra has slashed another 50c off its milk price forecast as global milk flows shows no sign of easing.
Meat processors are hopeful that the additional 15% tariff on lamb exports to the US will also come off.

OPINION: The release of the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill to replace the Resource Management Act is a red-letter day…
OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to…