FARMERS WERE initially wary of the Milk for Schools scheme because they thought it was charity, Fonterra’s chief executive Theo Spierings told Dairy News.

NEW YORK management consultant McKinsey is being used by Fonterra to help rebuild the brand after the botulism contamination scare in August – a false alarm.

Fonterra has appointed Pascal De Petrini as managing director of its Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) business unit.

Fonterra has forecast an increase in its 2014 farmgate milk price by 50c to $8.30 per kgMS.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says its precautionary recall was not the result of any one single cause, but the result of a number of separate and unrelated events occurring in an unforeseen sequence.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson and chief executive Theo Spierings will lead a board of directors' visit to China next week to meet with Fonterra management and key stakeholders.

A CRISIS tests leadership. And if a crisis makes or breaks a leader, Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings has come out a winner.

Fonterra says MPI has confirmed that additional independent testing has definitively established no presence of Clostridium botulinum in Fonterra's whey protein concentrate.

Fonterra has temporarily suspended operations in Sri Lanka because of "the unstable situation at the moment".

At last, some positive news from Fonterra.