The Country 16/04/25: Andrew Murray talks to Rowena Duncum

Fonterra’s CFO reviews last night’s Global Dairy Trade Auction – the first event post Trump’s tariff announcements. Prices were up 1.6% across the board, while whole milk powder increased by 2.8%.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the first global dairy trade auction overnight passed Trump's
tariff announcement. All eyes were on it. Joining me now
is Fonterra CFO Andrew Murray. Good afternoon, Andrew, welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
In, Thank you, Verena. Good to talk to you. Now.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Pretty good result all considered overnight. You must be relatively
happy with that one point six percent up across the
board and homework Powder up two point eight percent. They
were the key ones for me.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, for sure. I mean I think it was definitely
a reasonable result of it. You know, there was a
bit of uncertainty in the world at the moment, so yeah,
continue to see that demand being quite strong, especially as
you see in Hollmill Poda, so we were quite comfortable
as the result.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
There's been quite a change in the New Zealand and
US dollar exchange rate at the moment, so to see
homework Powder above that forty one hundred US three shold,
that was quite reassuring.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yes, I mean certainly, you know, we employ quite a
bit of FX hedging in order to make sure that
we can take a bit of that ball fertility out,
but yeah, it does give us a bit of cautiously
optimistic I guess you would say in terms of hope
that may plead into even in the next season.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
What are you seeing out there in the market, you know,
who were the big buyers last night?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I mean kind of in line with what we normally
see China, socy, Caesia, Middle Eastern Africa around about the
same sort of level that we normally see them player.
So it wasn't any sort of big deviations to what
we normally see from from a geography standpoint, which actually
was good to see, right, It was nice to see
the demand relatively staable in as I said earlier, you know,

(01:33):
quite a different environment.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
How are you getting on on the export front? I
know Frontierra export quite a bit of specialty products to
the UIs where is that sitting at the moment?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Look, we're not We're not seeing a huge impact at
this stage. I think, you know, the US is a
good important market for US, but you know it's a
market that has already had tariffs actually for some time,
so you know, it's it's not a mass of difference.
I think more concerned from our space is just how
this please out from a world economy standpoint? You know,

(02:06):
how this please with you know, global trade and the
ability to actually get up moving around the world. It's
probably more of a can say than actually old exports
into the US.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Two auctions left of the current dairy season three weeks
though until the next one. This is one of those
three Tuesday Wednesday kind of months. What are you expecting
for the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Although I think, you know, supply remains here, it is,
demand remains vere. It is I think we're you know,
respecting to be relatively in line with where things are now.
You can see that even last night's result relatively in
languis with what we're seeing in the derivtors market. So
I don't think we're re expecting much in the way
of surprises. And then obviously we'll see I think people
are certainly the bidding more on new term products, so

(02:52):
you know, I think people have just got a little
bit of an eye on what next season looks like.
And you know this five picture in there.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
What are you hearing from some at the moment, Andrew,
what's the feedback being like, you know, Deeri is actually
doing relatively well in spite of, as you say, all
this uncertainty out there.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yes, I mean it's still a little bit mixed, so obviously,
you know, the weather in North Island in particular is
obviously you know, a little bit more problematic recently, although
Socibeline seems to be in a decent space. So you know,
people are I think, I think the relatively or optimistic
in the moment in terms of what that looks like. Yeah,
people in an orky space that the weather in the

(03:30):
North have it is probably the biggest issue.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, And of course last night saying that tropical cyclone
named Cyclone tam hitting our way. I guess your your
field teams are just in touch with farmers if they
need any assistance.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yes, of course, yeah, I mean they're always available to
talk to the farmers.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, Andrew Murray fontira cee if I'm always good to
chat to you when there's been away rise in that
global dairy trade auction. Thanks so much for your time.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Thanks for rena