July 14, 2025 • 5 mins
The chief executive of Open Country Dairy talks about "yellow gold" - butter and cheese - and whether Kiwis will get a better deal domestically when OCD opens its new butter factory. We also look at tonight’s GDT and the milk price prospects for the 25/26 season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk yellow gold butter and cheese. I guess cheese
is yellow, is it? Mark de Latour, chief executive of
Open Country Dairy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, it is. It is. Certainly the cheeses gold and
the butter from New Zealanders is gold because we grasped, Jamie.
So yeah, we're pretty excited here about the commissioning of
our butter plant.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We've got global dairy trade auctions and I want to
come back to that one. But when you guys open
your butter plant in the next few days, is this
going to provide more competition on the domestic front for
butter and cheese, because poor old Fonterra, Mark, and I
know you'll be shedding tears for Fonterra getting it in
the neck at the moment about why butter and cheese
is so expensive in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, I guess some of the advantage of not having
Nikola willis visiting me on that, Jamie. But no, Look,
our focus for our butter planters is export, you know,
Open Country and export focused company, you know, and that's
quite frankly, the best returns are, Jamie. So you know,
I do feel a little bit for Miles getting that
(01:04):
phone call because he'll be struggling with the fact that
international butter prices are very very high. That's where the
best returns for farmers are and unfortunately for New Zealand
we've we're kind of going to have to keep up
with those those numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So you're telling me you can make more money exporting
it than you can selling it onto the domestic market.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, Jamie, I mean, and you know some of that
is economies of scale. Obviously. You know you can you
can be doing dozens of containers internationally and your costs
are lower than servicing New Zealand. But you know that
that's again just economic reality where you know, natural fats
but are are demanding a premium. So the world's going
(01:44):
going back to that model now.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
One of the great promotions you guys at Open Country
Do it Field Days is for any suppliers, they get
a block of a cheese or one kilogram block at
cheese or whatever, and it's brilliant. I don't know why
you don't sell it domestically because I'm sure you could
put a premium on it. That cheddar is to die for.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, I'll take that one, Jamie. I'm the team at
Wahara do a great job on the cheese. Were just
actually won a Best New Zealand Cheese for our Cheddar
in the International Cheese Awards, So we do really well
in the New Zealand Awards, but we do enter our
cheese internationally as well, and we just got gold for
(02:26):
Best New Zealand Cheese for our Cheddar and so that
was both for the vintage and mild, so that's really good.
We're really proud of that. And you know, as our supplies,
you get to enjoy some of that, Jamie. Just you know,
you will get some butter price relief this coming year, Jamie.
And for open country supplies, I'll get some of that butter.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, that's only if you're supplying Open Country, which is
what less than twenty percent of the country's dairy farmers. Anyhow,
I got my block home, and before people accuse me
of being a bloodshet, I am a supplier. It's bloody
hard to get your cheese home because it always gets
pinched from the fridge in the house we stay at
in Hamilton.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
We joke it's a bit of a traded currency cheese.
But I guess back to the Seriou stuff, Jamie, it is.
You know, that's the international market at the moment. You cheese,
but those types of products are demanding in a real
premium and for the country, I guess along, Matt continue, yep.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Who needs bitcoin when you can have butter and cheese
GDT auction tonight. But the guy I ring up every Tuesday,
every second Tuesday's Mike McIntyre at Jarden. He's their futures,
their derivative sky. He's saying the auction's going to be
flat to down one percent. But interestingly, and I'll get
your comment on that mark, But interestingly, milk futures currently
(03:40):
sit for this coming season twenty five twenty six at
nine dollars eighty six. Considering we've had three or four
falls in a row, that's an incredibly strong number.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, it is, it is, I think, Jennie, And I mean,
we've just completed our latest edition of Talk Milk, which
is a newsletter to supplies and a mathe Our milk
price over this coming season is sort of forecast just
under that ten dollar mark at the moment, so around
the ten dollars, and we're sort of saying that that's
still outperforming futures. But you know, futures is a sentiment
(04:12):
type thing, and right now you've got to say a
few dark clouds on the horizon, Joremy, so sentiments down
a little bit. But you know, let's be honest. I
think anywhere between say a nine to fifteen ten dollars
season this coming season, following the last season's result, it
will be a good, good outcome fanies Yland dairy farmers.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So, Mark Delator, tell me where Open Country dairy suppliers
will finish the twenty four twenty five season, the one
we've just finished. Because Fonterra and I hate to keep
throwing Fonterra at Fonterra at you Mark that they don't
give a number until September. Have you you guys figured
yours out yet?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, well, we're just about to finalize our fourth period,
that last milk period for the four last seasons many
and at the moment, our forecast midpoint for that period
is ten dollars seventy last last period, So that would
mathematically give us a season average. We don't normally spend
(05:10):
too much time talking about the season average because it's
not how we pay, but we'd probably got a bit
ten oh seven type number ten oh eight maybe depending
on the region, but you know that ten seventy midpoints
a pretty strong way to finish last season. So we
tend to split that fourth season into two payments, Jamie.
(05:30):
It's due actually the end of August, but we pay
half of the milk solids in July because obviously at
this time of the year, cashload for farmers is pretty tight.
So we pay half of that last settlement in July
and then balance it out in the end of August
once we've washed everything up to the season.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
What a wonderful company to supply. And you get a
block of cheese at field Days, Mark tell at all
thanks for your time for a block of cheese. I'd
do anything. I can't wait for you, but I see
you later, mate,
Let's talk yellow gold butter and cheese. I guess cheese
is yellow, is it? Mark de Latour, chief executive of
Open Country Dairy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, it is. It is. Certainly the cheeses gold and
the butter from New Zealanders is gold because we grasped, Jamie.
So yeah, we're pretty excited here about the commissioning of
our butter plant.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We've got global dairy trade auctions and I want to
come back to that one. But when you guys open
your butter plant in the next few days, is this
going to provide more competition on the domestic front for
butter and cheese, because poor old Fonterra, Mark, and I
know you'll be shedding tears for Fonterra getting it in
the neck at the moment about why butter and cheese
is so expensive in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, I guess some of the advantage of not having
Nikola willis visiting me on that, Jamie. But no, Look,
our focus for our butter planters is export, you know,
Open Country and export focused company, you know, and that's
quite frankly, the best returns are, Jamie. So you know,
I do feel a little bit for Miles getting that
(01:04):
phone call because he'll be struggling with the fact that
international butter prices are very very high. That's where the
best returns for farmers are and unfortunately for New Zealand
we've we're kind of going to have to keep up
with those those numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So you're telling me you can make more money exporting
it than you can selling it onto the domestic market.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, Jamie, I mean, and you know some of that
is economies of scale. Obviously. You know you can you
can be doing dozens of containers internationally and your costs
are lower than servicing New Zealand. But you know that
that's again just economic reality where you know, natural fats
but are are demanding a premium. So the world's going
(01:44):
going back to that model now.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
One of the great promotions you guys at Open Country
Do it Field Days is for any suppliers, they get
a block of a cheese or one kilogram block at
cheese or whatever, and it's brilliant. I don't know why
you don't sell it domestically because I'm sure you could
put a premium on it. That cheddar is to die for.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, I'll take that one, Jamie. I'm the team at
Wahara do a great job on the cheese. Were just
actually won a Best New Zealand Cheese for our Cheddar
in the International Cheese Awards, So we do really well
in the New Zealand Awards, but we do enter our
cheese internationally as well, and we just got gold for
(02:26):
Best New Zealand Cheese for our Cheddar and so that
was both for the vintage and mild, so that's really good.
We're really proud of that. And you know, as our supplies,
you get to enjoy some of that, Jamie. Just you know,
you will get some butter price relief this coming year, Jamie.
And for open country supplies, I'll get some of that butter.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, that's only if you're supplying Open Country, which is
what less than twenty percent of the country's dairy farmers. Anyhow,
I got my block home, and before people accuse me
of being a bloodshet, I am a supplier. It's bloody
hard to get your cheese home because it always gets
pinched from the fridge in the house we stay at
in Hamilton.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
We joke it's a bit of a traded currency cheese.
But I guess back to the Seriou stuff, Jamie, it is.
You know, that's the international market at the moment. You cheese,
but those types of products are demanding in a real
premium and for the country, I guess along, Matt continue, yep.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Who needs bitcoin when you can have butter and cheese
GDT auction tonight. But the guy I ring up every Tuesday,
every second Tuesday's Mike McIntyre at Jarden. He's their futures,
their derivative sky. He's saying the auction's going to be
flat to down one percent. But interestingly, and I'll get
your comment on that mark, But interestingly, milk futures currently
(03:40):
sit for this coming season twenty five twenty six at
nine dollars eighty six. Considering we've had three or four
falls in a row, that's an incredibly strong number.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, it is, it is, I think, Jennie, And I mean,
we've just completed our latest edition of Talk Milk, which
is a newsletter to supplies and a mathe Our milk
price over this coming season is sort of forecast just
under that ten dollar mark at the moment, so around
the ten dollars, and we're sort of saying that that's
still outperforming futures. But you know, futures is a sentiment
(04:12):
type thing, and right now you've got to say a
few dark clouds on the horizon, Joremy, so sentiments down
a little bit. But you know, let's be honest. I
think anywhere between say a nine to fifteen ten dollars
season this coming season, following the last season's result, it
will be a good, good outcome fanies Yland dairy farmers.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So, Mark Delator, tell me where Open Country dairy suppliers
will finish the twenty four twenty five season, the one
we've just finished. Because Fonterra and I hate to keep
throwing Fonterra at Fonterra at you Mark that they don't
give a number until September. Have you you guys figured
yours out yet?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, well, we're just about to finalize our fourth period,
that last milk period for the four last seasons many
and at the moment, our forecast midpoint for that period
is ten dollars seventy last last period, So that would
mathematically give us a season average. We don't normally spend
(05:10):
too much time talking about the season average because it's
not how we pay, but we'd probably got a bit
ten oh seven type number ten oh eight maybe depending
on the region, but you know that ten seventy midpoints
a pretty strong way to finish last season. So we
tend to split that fourth season into two payments, Jamie.
(05:30):
It's due actually the end of August, but we pay
half of the milk solids in July because obviously at
this time of the year, cashload for farmers is pretty tight.
So we pay half of that last settlement in July
and then balance it out in the end of August
once we've washed everything up to the season.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
What a wonderful company to supply. And you get a
block of cheese at field Days, Mark tell at all
thanks for your time for a block of cheese. I'd
do anything. I can't wait for you, but I see
you later, mate,
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