May 12, 2026 • 5 mins
It's Dairy Week here on The Country, and the chief executive of our second-biggest dairy company - Open Country Dairy - talks about forecast milk price, end-of-season volumes, the protein boom in the US, and whether Fonterra farmers are switching camps.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dairy Week on the country thanks to Meridian and Farmlands
making moving day easier for farmers, it is dairy Week
here on the country. We're focusing on our biggest export industry.
Second biggest player and growing in the market is Open
(00:20):
Country Dairy Chief Executive Mark de Latour joins us and Mark,
I see and I've looked at your supplier newsletter, your
forecast payouts for the May, September and November periods. They're
all pretty solid, like ninety nine fifty to nine eighty
nine ninety. Is that where you see the dairy market
at the moment, mid to high nines.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, go afternon Jamie, Yeah, I do, actually, and we've
we just completed our latest round of farmer supplier meetings
as well, and we we were suggesting to the farmers
the next season is going to be looking around that
nine sixty number starts a really strong start, and I
think you know this season that we're us washing up
now is probably going to finish a bit above that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How much is the protein boom, especially in the United
States off the back of these weight loss drugs. How
much of a boom is that for the New Zealand
dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I think it's first of all, they probably do need
something the Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yes they do, they do, indeed. But the irony of
it is they're taking our lean grinding beef to make hamburgers,
which make them fat, and then they need some of
our dairy protein to lose a bit of weight. I
mean only in America eight.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
What we do know is UK Europe follow those tunes
about three to four years later, so you know, I
think it can only be good for us, you know,
with our free trade agreements with UK and Europe kicking
them about that time.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think that'll be.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
A continued demand for the protein. So we're doing a
lot of work on that at Open Country, Jamie. And
and for us, it's about making sure our fat protein
options are there we can capture the capture the value
going forward.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I think lots of interest, I guess in the Western markets,
so we call it that the Western markets about losing weight.
But likewise, if you go to Southeast Asia or China,
everything's got twenty percent added protein and so things like
wigh proteins and even cheese consumptions up through the world.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Are you diverting product now from the fats to the
powders because open country you kind of your open country
cheese to start with.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, that's right, not not not really.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I guess what we're doing is we're taking we're certainly
doing more more skin, you know, which is which is
taking that fat off, which has still got high value.
We've got fantastic channels for our butter, so that's that's creating.
Really even with the you know, the auction prices dropping down.
The auction on fats is not actually that accurate, so
there's there's lots of options to get better pricing out
(02:58):
there than selling fats on an option, so we don't
do that. But but I think, you know, certainly way proteins,
they just seem unstoppable at the moment. So we're doing
a lot of work on that, looking at expanding you know,
the cheese capacity.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
We've talked about that for a while, so a.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Lot of talk, a lot of planning going on for that,
and you know, suddenly it's not just the caseine aspect,
not just the cheese that's valuable, it's it's the way.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So we're pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, I heard good commentary from Mike McIntyre. I know,
you know, I'm from Jardin, just back from the US,
and he was talking semi tongue and che to a
couple of cheese companies over there that said they're now
actually protein players and cheese is a high product.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And you've seen, you know, certainly seeing American cheese prices
come down. Accordingly, there's a little bit coming into this
part of the world. But that's not real cheese, Jamie.
This American cheese, not not grass fed pucha.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's a bit like some of that important American butter
and sipid sort of stuff. Are you ready to draw
a line under the twenty five twenty sixth season in
terms of making a call on volume for the season.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I mean it's all over bar the shouting, really, isn't it.
I mean, volumes have held up, you know, the tail
end of the season has.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Been very strong, but we are now seeing.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
The volumes drop off in the North Island in particular.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So you know, it's been a fantastic season.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I think we're closing in probably around near the six
percent up year on year, you know, on like like farms,
that's without any farm number increases. That's just people that
were supplying us the year prior to this year would
be right right on six percent up.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Finally, and you can choose to answer this or not
answer it. It may be commercially sensitive. How many Fonterra
shareholders have come over to Open Country or change teams
once they got their two dollars capital repayment.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
This is the second time had to go at me
on this, Jamie, geez, you're trying to catch me out,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
But but i'd see. Riley Kennedy had an article.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
In Businesses Go a couple of days ago saying that
Open Country we're pretty competitive on the milk front. Look again,
we're always always looking for more more milk, and you
know we've got the same value proposition we're always put
in front of farmers. Our goal, Jamie, is you know,
we don't necessarily say we compete with anyone. Our role
(05:27):
in the industry is to provide choice to farmers and
you know, if we can, if we can put a
good value proposition to them, we're open to talk to anyone.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You should be a politician. Mark Delatour and Dairy Week
here on the Country. Thanks for your time from Open Country.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Thanks mate.
Dairy Week on the country thanks to Meridian and Farmlands
making moving day easier for farmers, it is dairy Week
here on the country. We're focusing on our biggest export industry.
Second biggest player and growing in the market is Open
(00:20):
Country Dairy Chief Executive Mark de Latour joins us and Mark,
I see and I've looked at your supplier newsletter, your
forecast payouts for the May, September and November periods. They're
all pretty solid, like ninety nine fifty to nine eighty
nine ninety. Is that where you see the dairy market
at the moment, mid to high nines.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, go afternon Jamie, Yeah, I do, actually, and we've
we just completed our latest round of farmer supplier meetings
as well, and we we were suggesting to the farmers
the next season is going to be looking around that
nine sixty number starts a really strong start, and I
think you know this season that we're us washing up
now is probably going to finish a bit above that.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How much is the protein boom, especially in the United
States off the back of these weight loss drugs. How
much of a boom is that for the New Zealand
dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I think it's first of all, they probably do need
something the Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yes they do, they do, indeed. But the irony of
it is they're taking our lean grinding beef to make hamburgers,
which make them fat, and then they need some of
our dairy protein to lose a bit of weight. I
mean only in America eight.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
What we do know is UK Europe follow those tunes
about three to four years later, so you know, I
think it can only be good for us, you know,
with our free trade agreements with UK and Europe kicking
them about that time.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think that'll be.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
A continued demand for the protein. So we're doing a
lot of work on that at Open Country, Jamie. And
and for us, it's about making sure our fat protein
options are there we can capture the capture the value
going forward.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I think lots of interest, I guess in the Western markets,
so we call it that the Western markets about losing weight.
But likewise, if you go to Southeast Asia or China,
everything's got twenty percent added protein and so things like
wigh proteins and even cheese consumptions up through the world.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Are you diverting product now from the fats to the
powders because open country you kind of your open country
cheese to start with.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, that's right, not not not really.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I guess what we're doing is we're taking we're certainly
doing more more skin, you know, which is which is
taking that fat off, which has still got high value.
We've got fantastic channels for our butter, so that's that's creating.
Really even with the you know, the auction prices dropping down.
The auction on fats is not actually that accurate, so
there's there's lots of options to get better pricing out
(02:58):
there than selling fats on an option, so we don't
do that. But but I think, you know, certainly way proteins,
they just seem unstoppable at the moment. So we're doing
a lot of work on that, looking at expanding you know,
the cheese capacity.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
We've talked about that for a while, so a.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Lot of talk, a lot of planning going on for that,
and you know, suddenly it's not just the caseine aspect,
not just the cheese that's valuable, it's it's the way.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So we're pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, I heard good commentary from Mike McIntyre. I know,
you know, I'm from Jardin, just back from the US,
and he was talking semi tongue and che to a
couple of cheese companies over there that said they're now
actually protein players and cheese is a high product.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And you've seen, you know, certainly seeing American cheese prices
come down. Accordingly, there's a little bit coming into this
part of the world. But that's not real cheese, Jamie.
This American cheese, not not grass fed pucha.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's a bit like some of that important American butter
and sipid sort of stuff. Are you ready to draw
a line under the twenty five twenty sixth season in
terms of making a call on volume for the season.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I mean it's all over bar the shouting, really, isn't it.
I mean, volumes have held up, you know, the tail
end of the season has.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Been very strong, but we are now seeing.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
The volumes drop off in the North Island in particular.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So you know, it's been a fantastic season.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I think we're closing in probably around near the six
percent up year on year, you know, on like like farms,
that's without any farm number increases. That's just people that
were supplying us the year prior to this year would
be right right on six percent up.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Finally, and you can choose to answer this or not
answer it. It may be commercially sensitive. How many Fonterra
shareholders have come over to Open Country or change teams
once they got their two dollars capital repayment.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
This is the second time had to go at me
on this, Jamie, geez, you're trying to catch me out,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
But but i'd see. Riley Kennedy had an article.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
In Businesses Go a couple of days ago saying that
Open Country we're pretty competitive on the milk front. Look again,
we're always always looking for more more milk, and you
know we've got the same value proposition we're always put
in front of farmers. Our goal, Jamie, is you know,
we don't necessarily say we compete with anyone. Our role
(05:27):
in the industry is to provide choice to farmers and
you know, if we can, if we can put a
good value proposition to them, we're open to talk to anyone.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You should be a politician. Mark Delatour and Dairy Week
here on the Country. Thanks for your time from Open Country.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Thanks mate.
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