Fonterra farmers have received some good news this morning: a higher forecast milk price for this season.

Covid-19 has brought massive disruptions and huge cost increases to the world's shipping routes.

Red meat prices are continuing their golden run on the back of tight global supply.

Fonterra's balance sheet took an $880 million hit from its ill-fated China Farms and Beingmate investments.

The monthly value of goods exports in October 2021 rose $552 million (12%) from October 2020, to $5.3 billion, according to Statistics NZ.

Halal-certified red meat exports increased 13% during the 2020-21 season with most products going to non-Muslim markets, according to an analysis by the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

Dairy has been named as New Zealand’s largest organic sector with exports of $153.8 million, up 55% from 2017.

The desire for face-to-face business was recently demonstrated by the return of the 44th EIMA Show in Italy - the first major event of its type since the onset of Covid.

Dairy Supply pressures are continuing to provide support to commodity prices.

The country's second largest milk processor says it is on track to pay a record milk price to farmer suppliers this season.