Labour govt 2020-23

[Logen Ninefingers]

Fonterra is a monopoly so yes they set the prices for milk.



https://www.newsroom.co.nz/retailers...tting%20prices.

The full section gives a more nuanced perspective. There are high input costs for making finished products. Consider a bottle of milk and the logistical steps it goes through from collection at the farm, trucking to factory, processing and pasteurising at the factory, bottling, the cost of the bottle, the delivery to the selling point….lots of movement, lots of people to be paid for their part in the supply chain. Only a complete numpty fails to consider all of this.

————

‘Brett Henshaw, the managing director of Fonterra Brands NZ, says the big co-op is experiencing inflationary pressure and higher costs at every point in its supply chain. "It’s a similar story behind the farm gate with our farmers also managing significantly higher input costs," he says.

The price New Zealand consumers pay for dairy products is influenced by global dairy commodity prices and the cost of making the finished products, Henshaw argues. As well as farmgate prices, Fonterra considers labour, packaging, energy, manufacturing, storage and distribution costs in setting prices. "In times of high inflation, like we are currently experiencing, these input costs increase more quickly than usual and are reflected in Fonterra Brands NZ’s wholesale prices."’

[Panda-NZ-]

Fonterra profit up 50% in latest results.

https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/our-stories/media/fonterra-profit-up-50-in-fy23-interim-results.html

Surely NZ consumers can't be expected to pick up the tab for all of the costs.

The export markets should contribute something.

[justakiwi]

My son is a contract milker. He holds no shares in Fonterra. They contract him to provide milk and that's it. He has zero say in anything. Your understanding of the industry is seriously lacking.

Fonterra is a monopoly so yes they set the prices for milk.


https://www.newsroom.co.nz/retailers...tting%20prices.

[777]

My son is a contract milker. He holds no shares in Fonterra. They contract him to provide milk and that's it. He has zero say in anything. Your understanding of the industry is seriously lacking.

His understanding of anything is seriously lacking.

[Logen Ninefingers]

Fonterra profit up 50% in latest results.

https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/our-stories/media/fonterra-profit-up-50-in-fy23-interim-results.html

Surely NZ consumers can't be expected to pick up the tab for all of the costs.

The export markets should contribute something.

So you ignore the points about input costs going up, and instead point to a 50% increase in profits. $546 million profit is peanuts when you consider the size of Fonterra’s revenue, so the year prior must have been a very poor one.

As to the issue of increased costs, this is indeed covered in the announcement you posted -

“Our Total Group normalised operating expenses are up from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion due to the New Zealand consumer business and Asia brands impairments, increased costs including inflation and foreign exchange, and last year having a one-off favourable item.”

[Blue Skies]

I daresay some will, but not all farmers fit that demographic. Farmers will vote National this time, because Labour has completely let farmers down, and has done nothing to practically support them, while at the same time, enforcing impractical BS nonsense such as ute tax. Farmers are freaking struggling. You have no idea how many hours these people work every week, how hard it is to get staff, how stressful it is putting food on their tables. Go spend a month with a dairy farmer and come back and tell me I'm wrong.

And don't bother coming back with an anti-dairy farming rant. I will eat you for breakfast

I know its incredibly tough for dairy at the moment, hopefully just a temporary low point in the cycle, & then theres' been the devastating cyclones.

Genuine question from a curious city person, when you say the govt has done virtually nothing to support farmers while enforcing impractical regulations, I'm interested to know specifics. What regulations?
Help us understand.

Didn't the govt set up a $26 million relief fund on top of another $4 million for farmers for Cyclone relief, & when I look at the MPI site there seem to be a raft of funding grants available to encourage innovation & support agriculture & horticulture.

Also didn't this Labour govt make us the first country in the world to eradicate Mycoplasma Bovis, with grants to help farmers who lost stock? (And didn't National say it couldn't be done)

And isn't agriculture the only industry which has been given exclusive exemptions from meeting emissions targets, that's a privilege other industries don't get.

The Clean Car Discount scheme, encouraging new vehicle buyers away from heavily emitting vehicles which some farmers derogatorily called a Ute tax, was very broadly supported by NZ'ers & even Chris Luxon used it to buy 2 EV Teslas.
As well as being popular its been way more successful than anticipated.
Apart from helping us reach our emissions targets which Even Chris Luxon says National are 100% committed to, with the price of petrol & diesel EV's & Hybrids are looking sound economic choices.
So perhaps we can leave the Clean Car Discount out of it?

Despite all this, it sounds like there's no support where there should be & there must be some regulations which are unfair, so share this with us.

[Logen Ninefingers]

I know its incredibly tough for dairy at the moment, hopefully just a temporary low point in the cycle, & then theres' been the devastating cyclones.

Genuine question from a curious city person, when you say the govt has done virtually nothing to support farmers while enforcing impractical regulations, I'm interested to know specifics. What regulations?
Help us understand.

Didn't the govt set up a $26 million relief fund on top of another $4 million for farmers for Cyclone relief, & when I look at the MPI site there seem to be a raft of funding grants available to encourage innovation & support agriculture & horticulture.

Also didn't this Labour govt make us the first country in the world to eradicate Mycoplasma Bovis, with grants to help farmers who lost stock? (And didn't National say it couldn't be done)

The Clean Car Discount scheme, encouraging new vehicle buyers away from heavily emitting vehicles which some farmers derogatorily called a Ute tax, was very broadly supported by NZ'ers & even Chris Luxon used it to buy 2 EV Teslas.
As well as being popular its been way more successful than anticipated.
Apart from helping us reach our emissions targets which Even Chris Luxon says National are 100% committed to, with the price of petrol & diesel EV's & Hybrids are looking sound economic choices.
So perhaps we can leave the Clean Car Discount out of it?

There’s a clean car discount of course, but the ‘ute tax’ is the fee part of the whole thing.

‘The Government’s Clean Car scheme works by charging polluting cars a fee, and using revenue from those fees to offer a rebate on cleaner cars.’

Farmers contend that there is no electric vehicle available that is able to do what a petrol driven utility vehicle can do in on-farm conditions.

[Blue Skies]

There’s a clean car discount of course, but the ‘ute tax’ is the fee part of the whole thing.

‘The Government’s Clean Car scheme works by charging polluting cars a fee, and using revenue from those fees to offer a rebate on cleaner cars.’

Farmers contend that there is no electric vehicle available that is able to do what a petrol driven utility vehicle can do in on-farm conditions.

But that's not true & besides it only applies to new vehicles, many won't have to replace existing Utes for some years.

[Logen Ninefingers]

But that's not true & besides it only applies to new vehicles, many won't have to replace existing Utes for some years.

Not true? Oh yes it is.

‘Officials said that as there were “few low-emission utes available in New Zealand, Cabinet also considered two options for the treatment of the best performing diesel utes”.

The first example was to treat “efficient diesel utes differently from other high emission vehicles”

This would mean that low-emissions utes would get an exemption from the “ute tax” if registered before June 30, 2024.

The second option considered was to keep the current non-exempt status of utes, which is what Cabinet decided on in the end.

Officials warned this would hit rural communities.

“The increase in charges for utes would be expected to impact most on rural communities where the need for the functionality of utes is often great,” officials said.’

[justakiwi]

Sorry, I really don't have the energy or will to collate info to support my comments right now, but suffice to say, Labour's expectations of what farmers should be doing, with regards to environmental protection/sustainability, are unrealistic and unfair. The vast majority of dairy farmers are doing their absolute best to farm sustainably and to protect the environment. Those few who make the headline news, deserve condemnation and are making things harder for those farmers who are farming responsibly. If government (whichever one) wants to enforce particular changes in practice, then they should foot the bill. All this talk of reducing herd numbers is total BS. How do they expect farmers to operate economically if they are forced to do that? Where is that lost income coming from, to feed their kids, pay their staff, and care for their stock? Farmers in general, are not the wealthy "exploiters" people seem to think they are. They are down to earth, hard working, dedicated men and women, who work long days, and often go months without a day off. I'd like to see some of you get out of bed at 4am to start work every day, and still be working 12+ hours later.

If you really want detail on what issues dairy farmers are facing - just google it. There is plenty of info available.

I know its incredibly tough for dairy at the moment, hopefully just a temporary low point in the cycle, & then theres' been the devastating cyclones.

Genuine question from a curious city person, when you say the govt has done virtually nothing to support farmers while enforcing impractical regulations, I'm interested to know specifics. What regulations?
Help us understand.

Didn't the govt set up a $26 million relief fund on top of another $4 million for farmers for Cyclone relief, & when I look at the MPI site there seem to be a raft of funding grants available to encourage innovation & support agriculture & horticulture.

Also didn't this Labour govt make us the first country in the world to eradicate Mycoplasma Bovis, with grants to help farmers who lost stock? (And didn't National say it couldn't be done)

The Clean Car Discount scheme, encouraging new vehicle buyers away from heavily emitting vehicles which some farmers derogatorily called a Ute tax, was very broadly supported by NZ'ers & even Chris Luxon used it to buy 2 EV Teslas.
As well as being popular its been way more successful than anticipated.
Apart from helping us reach our emissions targets which Even Chris Luxon says National are 100% committed to, with the price of petrol & diesel EV's & Hybrids are looking sound economic choices.
So perhaps we can leave the Clean Car Discount out of it?