The Country 19/11/24: Mark de Lautour talks to Jamie Mackay

The Hamilton-based chief executive of Open Country Dairy will join us for a beer this afternoon in Auckland — but will we be toasting a $10 milk price?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is amazing what a few free bears does to
get a man to town. Mark Delatour is the chief
executive of Open Country Dairy, based out of the tron
But Mark, you've made your way up to Auckland. You're
going to join us this afternoon for the Auckland launch
of the Farmer's Poor Bear from Emerson's and the Farmers
Cut ships from Heartland Ships. They're quite good. I want

(00:22):
to warn you in advance.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am and d Jamie, and I'm looking forward to it.
As you know, I lived in Dunedin for three years
and got quite familiar with Emerson's product. So you know
when I heard it was available and you were shouting, Jamie,
I wasn't going to miss out on that.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Okay, Well, will will we be celebrating this afternoon or
a bit later this afternoon a ten dollars payout?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I mean this has been going on between you
and me for a month or so, an hour or
two months, but I think you might be coming close
to reality, Jamie. I think you know since I spoke
you last what I will say is you know there's
good changes to the foreign currency from New Zealand, so

(01:08):
obviously the weaker NDZD. Not not good for importers, but
good if you're exporting dairy products. That's helped and really
really strong demands in particular out of China, but Middle
East North Africa as well. So you know, I don't
think we're that far away, Jamie. And you know, we
were just having a look at our numbers for our

(01:29):
P two settlement period, which is really milk that we've
collected in October November, and that short period has come
right at where the market's staying to boom. So I'm
not going to give you a number on a Jamie,
but I think the Open Country Supplies will be surprised
and happy when we come out with our P two.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I'm going to pour a couple of farmers paws down
your neck this afternoon and get the real story out
of you, and I'll report that to the Open Country
Supplies tomorrow. Mark Dellatore, well, this chief executive Open Country,
talk to me about what's happening on the ground in China,
because like our guy over there, Hunter McGregor says, as
far as he's concerned, there are green shoots, but something

(02:12):
must be happening because we're seeing increased demand for dairy
and for meat.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yep, Yep, I think he's right, and I was singing
from exactly the same song as a songbook as Hunter
was even last week. But you cannot deny orders, and
like I was saying just before, you know, the last
two weeks out of China have shown a really strong
demand of hard orders at prices that are supporting the

(02:40):
current sentiment. So I'm still concerned. I'll go go on
record as saying I'm keeping a very careful line on
it simply because you know, post Chinese New Year, that
could turn around, and we will continue to be a
little bit conservative in our forecast on that. But you know,
as we say to our farmers with our payment processes,

(03:04):
we will give you what we see in front of
us and that will flow. So right now we've had
a good run and we'll take the money when you
can and a burden hand, you know, is our methodology,
I guess so. Yep, it's a very good question. Infantry
is are low, Jamie. I think the stimulus and China

(03:25):
the Beijing have put forward is helping. And if anything
that's helping sentiment, we just need to be you know,
just give a smart eye on it and just not
assume that everything's going to carry on like it is forever.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Final question for you seasonal production. I know you've got
North and South Island, You've got a big operation down
on South and you've got a good share of the
market down there. I'm assuming that seasonal production must be
behind year on year down there. But what about the
rest of the country.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, it is. I mean our rual facility there in
the Cargol of course, that's now. You know, I think
we're down two percent Jamie year in the season to date,
and you know, I ne to put that in context.
It started the season started well ahead, so you know,
tough old time down South and in particular and being
a little bit of sunshine now is starting to help.
But you know it's been tough down there. But you know,

(04:17):
in sentional thought among Anya that that's that's booming, that's
continuing to boom. We're up between eight and nine percent
there now and lots of milk playing big qualid milk
and perfect for the market as it is now. White
keddo's around five Jamie. So overall you know as a
as a as a company, we're six and a half

(04:37):
percent up year on year with milk flows, so really
positive position, just you know for old South and we're
still can't help there. We can, but we just need
some sunshine.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
They'll pick it up in the third and the fourth quarters.
Right the milk is flowing around the country. The bear
is going to be flowing on about flowing. But we'll
get a couple down our God's Wave a bit later
this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing it there. Mark Dellator,
thank you very much for your time from Open Country Dairy.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Sounds perfect. It's a good time for the industry right now.