The search for a new chair for troubled Canterbury milk processor Synlait is progressing, says acting chair Paul McGilvary.

An improvement in global markets and a weak New Zealand dollar are behind the ANZ Bank's optimistic prediction of a $7.70/kgMS farmgate milk price for this season.

The recently released 2023 Lamb Crop Report from Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) suggests farmers have successfully navigated challenges to deliver a great lambing.

Purchasing about a third of global contracted volume on the GDT auction platform, Fonterra's authorised resellers in China are an important part of the co-operative's ingredients business.

Improved demand from China has helped push the forecast farmgate milk for the season by 25c.

Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson says live exports of animals is a $500m trade that the country cannot afford to do without.

"It's not the nightmare it could have been!”

Global demand for the Envy apple brand means the first commercially produced Chinese variety of the apple is now being sold in China.

Livestock exporters are hoping to resume shipping animals from August next year.

According to a new report from the New Zealand China Council, New Zealand dairy, meat and seafood exporters need to keep up with rapidly evolving agri-food sustainability policies in China to ensure future market success.