Fonterra’s first results ‘satisfactory’

NEW ZEALAND – Dairy co-operative Fonterra announced its first ever set of half year results on Monday.

The company recorded revenue for the six months to November 30 of $7 billion (3.4 billion euro). It said that this reflected good international market prices at the beginning of the period. More recently prices have fallen, especially for milk powder.

Commenting on the results, Fonterra chief financial officer Graham Stuart said that the company’s progress had been satisfactory, but warned: “The challenge ahead of us is to maintain our performance in the more difficult international environment for the remainder of the financial year.” During the six months, Fonterra shareholders supplied 518 million kilograms of milk solids.

With the results, Fonterra warned that because dairy farming in New Zealand is seasonal, financial performance in the first half is not necessarily indicative of the likely full year outcome.

Fonterra has an annual turnover of approximately 6.8 billion euro. The results are the first since the company was formed from the merger of Kiwi Co-operative Dairies Limited, New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company Limited and the New Zealand Dairy Board.