The Country 21/05/25: Richard Allen talks to Jamie Mackay

We look at the results of the final GDT Auction for the 24/25 season with Fonterra’s president of global markets ingredients. Plus what is the Fonterra team doing in Shanghai?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Final global dairy Trade auction of the farming season last night.
Down as predicted by some people anyhow, down zero point
nine percent holemet powder. I think down one percent all
in all, not a bad result. We have finished the
season with the wet sale. To tell us more about
it from Fonterra, he's not in Shanghai with the rest

(00:20):
of the team, as Richard Allen, who's the president of
Global Markets Ingredients. I love that title, Richard and always
tease you about it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
But you did.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Spend time recently in Chicago. Are you missing America?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah? Look, I mean we loved our time up there.
I think, you know, it's a dynamic market. You know,
the opportunities we have up there as dairy are mens
and you know, continues to grow for us. But it's
great to be back. You know, we've we've had a
good summer and all in all, the you know, the
global ingredients markets for dairy are pretty strong, so we've
had a good six months at home.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I did allude to the fact that the team, some
of the Fonterra team anyhow, is up in Shanghai. And
I know that because I saw a picture on social
media of my correspondent Hunter McGregor having a quiet bear
with I think Henry Ackland, your PR guy, who does
a good job, and with Riley Kennedy, one of our
team from business desk, who does an excellent job in

(01:14):
my mind covering the primary sector.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, that's right. Big week in China this week it's
Bakery China and for our food service business in China,
which is our largest food service business around the world.
It really is a pre eminent event around I think
four hundred thousand people attend this event over four days.
It is massive. It is football fields of stands. We
have a pretty important position there and really that is

(01:41):
I guess been the centerpiece of us taking dairy to
the Chinese food service market. And yeah, it's usually a
really successful event for us.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
You guys must be really pleased. In fact, the dairy
industry right across the board must be pleased. The way
the season has finished, I think above expectation. We know that,
for instance, you're sitting at ten dollars now. I think
at the end of this month, May the twenty ninth,
you announce your new season forecast. Will it begin with
the one Richard?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, Look, I won't steal the big bosses thunder on
that one. We'll come out with the new season forecast
next week along with Q three results. But as you say,
it's been a really good season, you know, across the board.
You know, not often do we get good commodity prices
and good sort of demand around the world, coupled with
you know, some pretty decent rain across the country and

(02:30):
some pretty good milk volumes. Right, So we're happy with
kind of how things have progressed this season. I think
last night's DUDT was another good sign that, you know,
there is still a good strong demand out there. Important
we take this momentum, you know going forward. You know,
July is where we start to see the new new
season volumes start to come on, and you know the
volumes increase from here sort of through through the next

(02:52):
few months. So good momentum going forward. Obviously, it's a
very volatile world out there, you know, we wake up
every day and read the papers and figure out what
today's problem is to solve. But yeah, we're very happy
with kind of the season today and how the markets
are looking at the minute.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So as you said, next week we get the new
season forecast, I think we have to wait till what
September to figure out what we're going to get paid
for this season.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, so we obviously will confirm that as part of
our annual results. And there's obviously quite a process as
we close the season, close the books, and then make
sure those books are all tip top in terms of
auditors and all that. But as I said, you know,
we took some pretty good steps this year, you know,
including increasing our advance rate to ensure that we've got
cash out on farm as soon as possible. You know,

(03:37):
we increased the December page January up to eighty five percent,
and that means that farmers have had a lot more
cash on farm earlier, and so you know, the impact
of those retros is less.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I think Fonterra deserves a nine out of ten for
the season. Even then, I might be a bit tough
on you. It's been very good and I don't think
your ten thousand Farmers shareholders have too much to complain about.
Thanks for your time. We'll see you at field Days.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Great to show Jamie Pea