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Friday, September 22, 2023

Point of Order: NZ’s big dairy company reports a massive profit jump....



.....but the lobby group Greenpeace doesn’t like it

Dairy farmers, or at least those who are also shareholders in the Fonterra dairy co-operative would have received a second dose of good news this week, when the dairy giant reported a massive profit jump.

This followed news of a better sale at the Fonterra GDT auction this week.

Net profit was $1.57bn in the year to July 31, up from $583m in the year before. Reported earnings per share were 95c, up from 36c a year earlier.

Excluding the net gain from divestments of $248m, normalised profit after tax was $1.3bn, up $738m compared with the previous year. Total group revenue from continuing operations was $24.5bn, up from $21.9bn a year earlier.

Meanwhile the lobby group Greenpeace thought it would be a killjoy by parading a herd of cows around Fonterra’s head office in Auckland.

Greenpeace spokesperson Christine Rose says:

“We’re at Fonterra’s head office on its annual reporting day to bring attention to the fact that the dairy giant is capitalising on climate pollution caused by too many cows.

“Big Dairy is New Zealand’s worst climate polluter. The industry has been downplaying its role in the climate crisis and delaying action to cut climate pollution for far too long.”

Greenpeace activists installed a series of climate disaster images in the shape of cows in the courtyard in front of Fonterra’s head offices early this morning.

Rose says, “The intensive dairy industry’s drive for profit has led to too many cows being crammed on to the land. New Zealand’s giant dairy herd and the synthetic nitrogen fertiliser used to grow enough grass to feed it pollutes the climate with super-heating methane and nitrous oxide gas. This has contributed to the devastating climate disasters we’ve seen this year – from fires in Maui, Hawaii, to Cyclone Gabrielle here in Aotearoa.”

Between 1990 and 2019, the number of cows in NZ doubled from three million to six million. Dairy cattle alone account for almost a quarter of the country’s climate pollution.

Fonterra is NZ’s worst climate polluter, says Greenpeace.

The problem that Greenpeace ignores is that without the dairy industry NZ’s export income would shrink so fast NZ would be reduced to third world status overnight.

Commenting on the financial results generated largely by Fonterra’s exports, CEO Miles Hurrell said there were a number of key drivers that helped deliver the result, including favourable margins in the Ingredients channel, in particular the cheese and protein portfolios.

In the outlook, Hurrell said:

“We are watching market dynamics closely and there are indications demand for New Zealand milk powders will start to return from early 2024.

“Demand for other products, including Foodservice and our value-added ingredients, continues to be robust.”

Fonterra’s 2024 forecast earnings range for continuing operations was 45-60 cents per share.

Using the “reported” net profit, Fonterra’s earnings per share came to 95c, up from 36c last year.

Hurrell said the co-op had delivered strong earnings and made progress against key strategic initiatives in 2023 but that was against the backdrop of a farmgate milk price that had dropped across the season.

Fonterra’s 2022/23 season farmgate milk price had been impacted by reduced demand for whole milk powder from key importing regions, Hurrell said.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton

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