Fonterra lifts 2026/27 season farmgate milk price forecast on sustained demand

Fonterra-operative

29/10/2026 20:58

Oct 30 (Reuters) - New Zealand's Fonterra FCG.NZ said on Friday it had raised the lower end of its milk price forecast for the 2026/27 season, largely driven by improving demand for whole milk powder and skim milk powder. 
The dairy producer narrowed the annual forecast for farmgate milk price — the price it pays to farmers — to NZ$9 to NZ$10.50 per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS) from a prior view of NZ$8.50 to NZ$10.50 per kgMS.

Here are the details:     
The midpoint of the new forecast range of NZ$9.75 per kgMS,  is higher than that of the previous projection of NZ$9.50 
CEO Richard Allen said sustained demand from across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and China has increased its WMP and SMP pricing on Global Dairy Trade by 5% and 7%, respectively, over the last two auctions
The company in September raised the lower end of the forecast for the 2026/27 season, citing improvements in global commodity prices
Fonterra also lifted the midpoint for its forecast for Organic Milk Price to NZ$15.25 per kgMS from NZ$14.30, and lifted the lower end and narrowed the range to NZ$14.50 to NZ$16, from NZ$13.30 to NZ$15.30 per kgMS
"We have also had a good start to the season which sees our sales book well contracted for this stage of the year, despite record milk collections, giving us confidence to lift and narrow the forecast range," Allen said

 (Reporting by Tejas Harish; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
 ((Tejas.Harish@thomsonreuters.com;))