Westgold Butter Ranked Best Supermarket Butter in Consumer NZ Blind Taste Test
Westgold butter has been named New Zealand's tastiest in a blind tasting conducted by Consumer New Zealand.
Big jumps in butter and cheddar cheese prices reflect Chinese consumers returning to restaurants, cafes and bakeries, says Westpac’s senior agro economist Nathan Penny.
He says butter and cheddar are key inputs in the restaurant and bakery businesses.
Penny says over time he expects the recovery to broaden into other products, notably whole milk powder (WMP), which is used as the benchmark to set farm gate milk price.
“However, in the short term and as stocks are run down, the price recovery may be stop-start in nature,” Penny says.
He made the comments after last night’s Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction saw the price index drop 1.5% and WMP prices dip 2%.
However, the biggest mover was butter prices, jumping 3.8%; cheddar was up 1.5%.
Penny points out that butter prices surged by 10.6% over the two February auctions, while cheddar prices are up 5% since the end of 2022.
For February as a whole, prices posted modest gains, with overall prices rising 1.6% and WMP prices lifting 2.1%.
Penny says the latest GDT result was a little below expectations.
“We had pencilled in a 1% WMP price lift ahead of the auction, while the futures market was pointing to a similarly small rise.”
Westpac is sticking to its 2022/23 milk price forecast of $8.75/kgMS.
Federated Farmers says the Government’s latest investment in road resilience is a positive step toward protecting rural communities and freight routes from increasing severe weather events.
The stockfood storage capacity of J Swap Stockfoods continues to grow in the South Island with the opening of a new store that boosts its capacity in Christchurch and work starting on another store in Southland.
Fonterra has lifted and narrowed its full year forecast earnings range to 60-70 cents per share after a strong quarter, supported by robust milk production, strong shipment volumes and continued demand across its Ingredients and Foodservice businesses.
Fonterra has announced it will continue with the planned expansion of its organic business into the South Island.
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