Fonterra unveils divestment plan
Fonterra is exploring full or partial divestment options for its global Consumer business, as well as its integrated businesses Fonterra Oceania and Fonterra Sri Lanka.
The online global dairy auction launched by Fonterra nine years ago has sold US$20 billion of products.
GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) passed the milestone at the 185th trading event last week. It offers three services: GDT Events, GDT Insight and GDT Marketplace, for dairy buyers, manufacturers and the financial dairy trading sector.
Director Eric Hansen says GDT Events enables high volumes of dairy ingredients to be traded efficiently, its unique scale underpinning the reliability of the reference pricing.
“Over 40 specifications of dairy ingredients are offered to at least 500 registered bidders from 80 countries, offering more trading opportunities than any other platform.”
GDT Events, now in its ninth year, has traded at least 5.8 million tonnes of dairy ingredients, enough to fill 365,000 twenty-foot shipping containers.
GDT Events kept going through the two-year downturn on the global dairy market; in 2016, despite the relatively weak market, at least 95% of the products offered were sold.
“We’re [now] also looking at the viability of creating multi-seller pools for homogenous products, such as generic lactose or other commodity products available from certain regions,” Hansen says. “This would extend the benefits of credible price discovery to a wider range of markets and products.”
In 2016 GDT set up a GDT Events oversight board to promote the independence and transparency of the twice-monthly auction.
Chairman Bill Shields says GDT Events is the leading provider of reference prices for core ingredients, reflecting the levels of global supply and demand traded on the platform.
“The prices established on GDT Events provide businesses along the supply chain with enhanced visibility of the dairy sector and can be used to improve their planning.
“GDT Events shows that better price discovery can be beneficial to market participants whether prices are weak or strong, and can contribute to better price risk management in the dairy industry.”
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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