Campbell Parker: Dairy NZ CEO on the new dairy season, wide milk price range
episodeTranscript
jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcriptTranscript
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
In the midst of the budget noise yesterday came Fonterra's third quarter result. We featured it very briefly towards the end of the show. Unlike the government, actually, Fonterra's rolling in money. New season starts next week. Opening forecast at $9.75 a kilo for the milk solids. Operating profit $1.8 billion. That's just for Q3, which is up $103 million. Campbell Park is the CEO at Dairy New Zealand.
What is the opening forecast for the new dairy season?
Back with us. Campbell, morning. Morning, Mike. How are you? Very well indeed. That opening range has an 11 at the top end. Have we had an 11 before?
Last year, I think it was close to that at the start of the season with the opening forecast at 10, but the range on the downside is also 8. So I think mirroring a fair bit of volatility out there still.
Yeah, indeed. But I mean, these are golden days, aren't they?
Oh, look, they're very good in terms of not only in dairy, but also across the meat sector as well. Returns for farmers are strong.
Where are we at? Are people converting? Are people going, I'm going to get into this?
How is the milk price range impacting farmers?
Or are we sort of at peak cow, peak land, all that stuff?
Look, in terms of peak cow number, they've come back off since 2015. There are conversions happening in Canterbury. The first thing I would say is they're generally converting out of land to a lower footprint. So it's the first thing. And the way that they've been converted is very different than how they were done historically as well. So, yep, there is conversion activity happening, but it's not back to the days when we had massive land changes.
So what's happening in the world to bring these numbers and this continuing growth in?
I think there's a couple of things. One is the strong demand for protein and there's also very strong demand for naturally produced products and New Zealand being pasture based, we do have a unique position in the world around that and then I think that whole demand for protein, I was at the Beef and Lamb Conference last week and Related to red meat, but it's a similar trend. If you look at places like the US, they've flipped the priority for protein. You've got weight loss drugs going on, so people are eating less but more protein. So demand for protein overall is very strong.
How do you balance this? See, the story when you talk about lamb and beef, it's a quality story, so you can sell through tariffs and problems like that. A lot of dairy is bulk as opposed to quality, isn't it?
One of the, I mean, look, it's one of the most, you know, nutritionally dense foods, but one of the benefits of milk is it can be turned into a lot of products. So if you look at, you know, Fonterra with the food services business, the ingredients business, where milking's up is not just in bulk products. So that's where the value is, and how do we try and extract that to return it to farmers?
Super exciting times. Good on you, mate. You have a good weekend.
Campbell Parker, who's the CEO of Dairy New Zealand.
No segments match your search.
Select any passage to copy it with its citation or turn it into a shareable card.
Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
2 identifiedMore from The Mike Hosking Breakfast
Mark the Week: Supermarkets have become the obsession of the campaign
Mike's Minute: Council amalgamation – something else this Govt didn't deliver
Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the meeting between Trump and Xi, return of the White House press pool
Wrapping the Week with Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson: Critiquing Mike, school holidays, ageing
Full Show Podcast: 25 September 2026
Chris Medland: Formula 1 Journalist on Liam Lawson's return to Racing Bulls, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix