Fonterra Cuts 2026/27 Milk Price Forecast to $9.25
Fonterra has reduced its forecast 2026/27 Farmgate Milk Price.
Fonterra chairman John Wilson says the co-op is providing a new level of transparency to shareholders about the business.
He told the annual meeting in Waitoa last week that it was providing clear reporting on each business – ingredients, consumer and food service and international farming.
Wilson says in any season some parts of the co-op may perform better than others, "just as some farmers are more productive than others on a year-to-year basis".
"We can see clearly where we are doing well and the steps we are taking where performance needs improvements," he says.
"We are enabling shareholders to better understand the business."
Wilson says reporting performance quarterly, as has happened this month, added further to this transparency.
Fonterra is now an $18 billion global business.
TAF (trading among farmers) is now part of the business; ownership and control by shareholders is as strong as ever, as shown by the record voter turnout last week.
Wilson notes Fonterra has stood its ground in the face of competition.
"We produce 85% of the milk in New Zealand, we have a stable milk supply base and our shareholder numbers continue to increase."
During general discussion at the meeting Wilson admitted the co-op had "dropped the ball" in its communications with shareholders. Wilson said that informing farmers earlier this year about new PKE usage limits was one such example.
He says the co-op must get its communications better and this is in the front of mind of management.
Former King Country MP Shane Ardern told the meeting that the co-op was unable to take stakeholders along on its strategy "in these turbulent times".
"We definitely have communication issues," Ardern told the meeting. "We have to do better in our public relations department."
Fonterra has reduced its forecast 2026/27 Farmgate Milk Price.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.

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