Lincoln University hosted senior management from both Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group and its subsidiary Oceania Dairy last week.

Dairy farmers are still wary despite three successive lifts in global dairy auction prices.

Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. One is a Kiwi, born and bred on a sheep and beef farm and has gone back to the farm after 20 years. The other is a Chinese woman who had never been near a farm before a New Zealand visit and thinks cows and calves are “so cute”.

Zespri has no financial exposure to Dalian Yidu, the north-east Chinese importer who reportedly has had nine staff arrested by Chinese customs.

Plummeting oil prices haven’t translated into much cheaper fertiliser yet and it’s unlikely they will any time soon, says Ravensdown.

Dairy prices have bottomed out and are on a tentative and slow recovery path. That’s the consensus of four agri economists spoken to by Dairy News after last week’s Global Dairy Trade auction saw a 1% lift overall and notably a 3.8% lift in whole milk powder.

Fonterra is a step closer to buying a cornerstone stake in leading Chinese infant food manufacturer, Beingmate.

European dairy co-op Arla Foods is integrating its markets in China and South East Asia.

The North Island sale saw prices lift on the back of a weaker New Zealand dollar and steady off-shore interest, NZ Wool Services International Ltd's marketing executive, Paul Steel, reports.

Agri-specialist lender Rabobank says that investing in premium wine can be a complicated and disjointed process.