The results from the January trading event of Fonterra’s internet-based sales platform, globalDairyTrade, has reflected a continued softening in international dairy prices. The trading manager, CRA International, advised Fonterra that the average price achieved across all products and contract periods for Whole Milk Powder (WMP) was US$2,017 per tonne FAS New Zealand Port - 9.3 per cent lower than for the previous trading event in December. Spot prices rose 1.3 per cent above those for the... ...Read more »

The purchase of Dairy Farmers by National Foods will be implemented next week after receiving court approval today… Australian Co-operative Foods Limited (ACF), which trades as Dairy Farmers, today announced that the National Foods offer to acquire all of the shares in the Co-operative had been approved by the New South Wales Supreme Court. National Foods won shareholder approval last week for their $910 million proposal. ACF Chairman Ian Langdon said the court’s approval of the scheme... ...Read more »

Australian Co-operative Foods Limited (ACF), which trades as Dairy Farmers, and National Foods today announced that ACF members had approved the acquisition proposal by National Foods. On August 25 Dairy Farmers announced that National Foods had outbid other interested parties, with their $910 million offer. The deal involved a joint venture with Warrnambool Cheese and Butter for the cheese business of Dairy Farmers. National Foods have also since come to an arrangement to allow Fonterra to acquire... ...Read more »

The world’s largest dairy exporter, Fonterra Co-operative Group, has opened its new research and development centre - the Chicago Technical Centre (CTC) - in Chicago, Illinois.Fonterra has invested US$2.4 million in the state-of-the-art facility, which applies New Zealand intellectual property and technology to the benefit of both the New Zealand and US dairy industries. Customers will be able to come in and physically see the processes and taste the products, as Fonterra’s technical... ...Read more »

Fonterra, which owns 43 per cent of Sanlu - the company at the centre of the melamine scandal in China, has denied reports it is looking to sell its stake, according to ABC Online. News reports have suggested the New Zealand dairy co-operative has been in talks to sell its share of the company in the wake of the scandal which has led to the death of four babies and the illness of about 54,000 infants. It has been considered a “criminal contamination”, with over 20 people arrested for... ...Read more »

National Foods and Fonterra yesterday announced they had entered into an agreement which would allow Fonterra to acquire the SKI yoghurt licence and associated intellectual property if National Foods’ proposed takeover of Dairy Farmers is approved. National Foods, owned by Japanese-based Kirin Holdings, made an offer to purchase Dairy Farmers for $910 million which was unanimously recommended by the Dairy Farmers Board in late August. Shareholders in the Australian dairy co-operative have until... ...Read more »

In the wake of the Chinese milk scandal, which has led to the deaths of four babies and made of 54,000 infants ill, international food safety and health authorities are working together to determine the level of melamine in food that will present negligible risks to public health. “Since the identification of the problems in China, food safety authorities all around the world have been working to identify public health threshold levels for melamine,” Dr Geoff Allen, NZFSA (New Zealand... ...Read more »

Following the contamination of Chinese milk products with the chemical melamine, China has removed over 7,000 tonnes of dairy products (primarily powdered and liquid milk) from retail outlets and food standards bodies around the world are testing Chinese milk-based imports and issuing precautionary product recalls. Australian food safety authority FSANZ yesterday instigated a recall of White Rabbit candies after White Rabbit candies in New Zealand and Singapore were found to contain high levels... ...Read more »

The number of infants sickened by tainted milk products has swelled to 53,000 according to the latest reports from the Chinese Government, with China’s Chief Quality Supervisor, Li Changjiang, stepping down in the wake of the scandal. Li is the highest ranking official brought down so far by the dairy product contamination scandal, according to the official news agency of the Chinese Government (Xinhua). Wu Xianguo, the Communist Party chief of Shijiazhuang City - where Sanlu Group, the first... ...Read more »

Fonterra’s Chief Executive Andrew Ferrier has told media today that he has been “frustrated” with the handling of the contaminated milk issue by Chinese authorities. A baby milk formula produced by Sanlu, a company which NZ dairy giant Fonterra has a 43 per cent share in, has reportedly been responsible for two deaths and over 400 cases of illness amongst infants. The Sanlu Board and Fonterra were made aware of the contamination of the formula on August 2, when a trade recall was... ...Read more »