{"id":385749,"date":"2026-04-18T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/385749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:38:08","slug":"200m-for-northland-dairy-farmers-from-4-2b-fonterra-brand-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/385749\/","title":{"rendered":"$200m for Northland dairy farmers from $4.2b Fonterra brand sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

It followed overwhelming support for the deal, with 98% of shareholders voting in favour of it, in February.<\/p>\n

With around 400 Fonterra dairy farmers in Northland<\/a>, that will provide a tax-free cash fillip of a least $160m across the region, but Hannah says the real total is more than $200m.<\/p>\n

While some farmers have sold their farms in recent years, they have retained their Fonterra shares so will get some or all of the payout, he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018The average debt for Northland dairy farmers is about $20 per kilo of milk produced, so that\u2019s reasonably high. And given the turmoil around the world, a lot will tighten their belts even more so.<\/p>\n

\"White-liquidWhite-liquid gold: Northland dairy farmers are set for a $200 million tax-free payout from Fonterra\u2019s $4.2 billion sale of its dairy brands to French giant Lactalis.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, a few of the younger ones may spend, say buy another farm, but most will pay down debt, and put some away.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hannah<\/a> said when speaking to farmers (about this payout) at the Northland Field Days and the Bay of Islands A&P Show, when asked if they\u2019d be buying a bach or new car, many said they were going to sit on it because they just don\u2019t know what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very interesting as that\u2019s the very first time farmers have spoken like that, and a sign of where things are at \u2013 pay debt off and\/or save it due to the uncertainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Compounding issues for the farmers was the rising cost of fuel<\/a>, with diesel skyrocketing and the extra expense having a big impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to fill the tractor up the other day, and it cost $1500. It would have been $600-800 before [prices started rising due to the Iran War],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd other farm costs are going up as a result, suppliers are putting up their costs due to rising fuel prices. There\u2019s a big gap between the farm costs in Northland compared to the returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sale to Lactalis involves some of Fonterra\u2019s most recognised brands, including Anchor and Mainland. Fonterra says although its consumer business was profitable, the capital tied up in it was better directed to the co-operative\u2019s ingredients and foodservice businesses, which offer better returns on the capital.<\/p>\n

While $3.2b will be returned to farmers, Fonterra aims to retain about $1b to invest over the next three to four years in projects to generate further value through its remaining ingredients and foodservice businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It followed overwhelming support for the deal, with 98% of shareholders voting in favour of it, in February.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[78777,82259,54328,17767,8613,4463,650,138,7224,5399,219,12967,7226,17766,2082,71,22220,1132,3025,111,139,1067,69,1133,200070,4504,122,1533,23330,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-385749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-78777","9":"tag-200m","10":"tag-54328","11":"tag-42b","12":"tag-billion","13":"tag-brand","14":"tag-brands","15":"tag-business","16":"tag-dairy","17":"tag-debt","18":"tag-economy","19":"tag-farmers","20":"tag-fonterra","21":"tag-fonterras","22":"tag-for","23":"tag-from","24":"tag-going","25":"tag-million","26":"tag-most","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-northland","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-sale","32":"tag-spendup","33":"tag-theres","34":"tag-unlikely","35":"tag-will","36":"tag-windfall","37":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}