Rural round-up

Blue River Dairy Sells Invercargill Processing Plant to Chinese Interests:

New Zealand’s leading sheep milk powder producer, Blue River Dairy, has sold its Nith Street, Invercargill processing plant to Blueriver (HK) Nutrition Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as ‘Blueriver Nutrition HK’) for an undisclosed sum.

The deal is effective from 1 February and no jobs will be lost at the plant. Conversely, significant new investment at the plant is planned by Blueriver Nutrition HK with the likely addition of a second drier and up to $40m in new development. This will likely create additional jobs in construction and production, both on-plant and on-farm, over the next five years.

Blueriver Nutrition HK will continue to process Blue River milk as part of the sale with Blue River, who will concentrate on expanding its milk production on-farm to meet growing demand. . .

NZ lamb wool price jumps to 3 1/2 year high on increased demand – Tina Morrison:

(BusinessDesk) – New Zealand lamb wool prices rose to a three-and-a-half year high at auctions this week on increased demand for the fibre used in clothing, as buyers benefited from a decline in the local currency.

The price for lamb wool in the North Island auction jumped 30 cents to $6.40 per kilogram, from last week’s North Island auction, while the South Island auction price rose to $6.25/kg on lower volumes, according to AgriHQ. The prices are the highest for lamb wool since July 2011.

The price for 35-micron clean wool, a benchmark for crossbred wool used for carpets and accounting for the majority of New Zealand’s production, rose to $5.05/kg in the North Island and $5.10/kg in the South Island, from $4.85/kg the previous week. Merino wool didn’t trade at the latest auctions. . .

Fonterra’s US licence blunder human error:

Fonterra has admitted human error has cost the dairy giant its multi-million dollar licence to export cheese to the United States.

In a statement the co-operative said it missed its deadline to apply for the licence, and will now have to sell its cheese to the US by arranging deals with other licenced New Zealand exporters.

“Due to human error, a deadline was missed which meant that Fonterra (USA) failed to apply in time for licences to import New Zealand cheese into the USA in 2015,” said Fonterra director global ingredients Kelvin Wickham. . .

Synlait revises forecast of market milk price to $4.40:

Synlait Milk has today revised its forecast of the market milk price for the FY2015 season down from $5.00 per kgMS to $4.40 per kgMS, along with a corresponding decrease in advance rates to farmers.

Synlait Chairman Graeme Milne said this revision is the result of several factors at play in the global market, which are causing continued downward pressure on milk prices.

“Low commodity prices are persisting as the global market struggles with the current over supply of milk products,” said Mr Milne. . .