Fonterra’s farmers vote in favour of $4.2b Mainland sale to Lactalis
Fonterra’s farmers have voted strongly in favour of the sale of its Mainland consumer and related businesses to France’s Lactalis for $4.22 billion.
The co-op said 88.47% of the total farmer votes were in support of the sale.
Voting, which started on October 7, closed today at a special meeting.
The co-op is targeting a tax-free capital return to farmers of $2 per share from the transaction.
Analysts estimate the deal is worth about $400,000 in total for an average farmer.
A $400 000 Tax Free Payout given to selfish Dairy Farmers who used their monopoly position to build these brands only to flog them off in favour of basic bitch milk powder production for the heavily manufactured food industry!
Fonterra trash their social contract while selfish Dairy Farmers betray NZ!
Fonterra doesn’t care about New Zealand. That’s Greenpeace Aotearoa’s message following the confirmation of sale of Fonterra’s consumer brands this morning.
Greenpeace spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn says, “Fonterra’s CEO Miles Hurrell has shown that he views New Zealand as nothing more than a milk powder factory, creating low-value products to ship overseas for use in Mars Bars.”
“People can’t afford to buy butter, their water is contaminated with nitrate and E. coli, and the worsening impacts of the climate crisis are being felt across the country. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s worst climate polluter has made a killing selling off its consumer brands to French dairy giant Lactalis. Fonterra is milking us dry and selling us all out.”
“While Fonterra makes $4.2 billion from the brand sale, New Zealand’s integrity as a fair and socially responsible country is being whittled away by the impacts of intensive dairying.”
Two thirds of rivers and lakes are too degraded to swim in or collect kai from, and many rural communities can’t drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap because of nitrate contamination from intensive dairying.
Fonterra is also New Zealand’s worst climate polluter, producing massive amounts of superheating methane gas.
“Fonterra is driving catastrophic climate change.” says Deighton-O’Flynn. “Already this year we’ve seen multiple extreme weather events hitting rural communities hard, and unless Fonterra supports farmers to move away from its intensive farming practices, these events will get worse.”
Over the long weekend, New Zealanders were hit by yet another extreme weather event in the South Island, made more likely due to climate change.
“We all want a stable climate to grow food, access to safe drinking water, and a secure future for our kids. But Fonterra clearly doesn’t care about New Zealanders. Instead of throwing a lifeline, and helping dairy farmers to transition away from destructive intensive dairying, Fonterra is prioritising lining the pockets of its executives.
“Any claims that this sale is good for New Zealanders are built on the fallacy of trickle down economics. The proceeds from the brand sale aren’t going to help New Zealanders struggling to pay for butter at the supermarket or recovering from storm damage, the only thing trickling down in this economy is nitrate and E. coli.”
…how many times do I have to spell this out to you sleepy hobbits?
We created a monopoly in the form of Fonterra to maximise price negotiations on the global market, but the flipside of that is that me as a consumer in NZ, for a product made in NZ, I’m competing with 500 million middle class Chinese who want this product.
NZ only has a population of 5million, we can never compete for price against 500million middle class Chinese.
Why should we be forced to pay the same price as the Chinese Middle Class can afford?
The Chinese Middle Class is forecast to grow to 787 million!
On top of that, this butter is created by a cow which takes water, pollutes water and generates climate warming emissions.
So this product, that I’ve already paid an environmental price in the manufacturing of, also costs me an arm and a leg price wise, because I’m competing with 500million middle class Chinese?
Why are we paying a price that is imposed upon us by a middle class market that is many times larger than our total population?
Also consider the impact of synthetic milk production that would cripple our economy overnight!
How close is research to synthetic milk powder?
Current progress
Precision fermentation: Companies like Perfect Day (US), Imagindairy (Israel), and Remilk (Israel) are already producing dairy proteins (casein, whey) using genetically engineered microbes. These proteins are identical to those in cow’s milk.
Pilot products: Ice cream, cheese, and yoghurts using synthetic milk proteins are already on the market in limited quantities.
Milk powder challenge:
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Fresh liquid milk analogues are progressing faster because they need fewer processing steps.
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Milk powder requires scale and drying infrastructure — you need not just proteins but fats, sugars (lactose alternatives), and minerals in the right balance, then spray-dry them without losing functionality.
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As of 2025, no company has achieved full commercial-scale milk powder equivalents suitable for use in all the same applications (e.g., infant formula, bakery, confectionery).
Timeframe estimates
Industry analysts predict proof-of-concept synthetic milk powders within 3–5 years, but mass-scale, cost-competitive production is probably 10+ years away.
Bottlenecks: scaling fermentation vats, energy cost of spray drying, regulatory approvals, and consumer acceptance.
Dairy is a sunset industry and our decision to destroy the brands and sell them off means we are simply basic bitch milk powder producers and we lose all our edge the moment synthetic dairy can replace organic milk powder.
Our basic bitch milk powder is used as an ingredient filler for the heavily manufactured food industry, a food industry that produces fat, sugar and salt laden crap food.
Do you all honestly believe hand on heart that that food industry will draw a line in the sand for our organic basic bitch milk powder?
How stupid is you?
Why have we allowed the corporates to take the kai from our nation and make us compete against far larger markets who will pay more than the domestic population in NZ can afford?
I’m sick of Fonterra’s excuses.
We created a Monopoly for them and these greedy fucks have trashed their social contract with Kiwis!
Watch as these French owners use NZs brand and then replaces our product for theirs while trading on our brand!
The huge pay off from selling our brands will be reinvested into the right wing astroturf influencers as Dark Ag money to manipulate the sleepy hobbits into entrenching their interests.
Get off your knees Kiwi, the Dairy Farmer ain’t your mate!
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The case for the sale of Fonterra’s added value business seems flawed on four counts.
First because a business which disposed of its least profitable product lines would soon end up with just one product to sell or no business at all. (Although not a direct parallel, consider the likely fate of a supermarket which stopped selling bread).
Second because having added value processing gives the bulk commodity business direct and valuable intelligence into changes in its downstream market.
Third, because when the deal with Lactalis expires, Lactalis will use European and other suppliers to meet its base load demand for raw ingredients, and leave Fonterra to top up supply in times of high demand, making Fonterra very vulnerable to swings in the market.
Fourth, because farmers indirectly benefit from processing in New Zealand. Sons, daughters, partners and siblings work in the cheese and dairy factories, and those factories also provide the tax revenue upon which modern farms depend for transport and communication networks, education, research, health services and so on. My guess is that the agreement with Lactalis, while committing Lactalis to use Fonterra ingredients for ten years would not specify where the processing would be done. If that is the case factories in New Zealand could be closing in less than a decade from now and production could progressively shift to Australia. That would have repercussions not just for Lactalis New Zealand employees but for Fonterra’s own remaining milk powder production (which cannot shift to Australia). Modern industries rely on many specialist engineering services that demand economy of scale, which is one reason why the closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery negatively impacted the New Zealand dairy industry. Every industry that closes makes it harder for those remaining to survive.
Did Fonterra’s farmer shareholders look at the big picture?
GF Very good summary. I liked to look at those old white pretentious clots in a recent image of the leadership. They are of the middle class that have always seen themselves as adding style and talent to the country which needs them, rather than the other way round. Because they have been able to stride through portholes that suit their own abilities and beat off competition, they are made-men.
NZ still thinks along the lines of worshipping people picked for a sports team. And NZ sportsmen if they are good may now be offered a place in an overseas team, now we are playing for money! But a nation, and the strength and power of its assets and businesses, is not a sportsman -player advancing in life through moneyed popular teams, nor is it a ball to be kicked around. However we are a easily impressed and a bit slippery, just simple lads and lasses, hypnotised by their own lucky proficiency and don’t know how to value honestly what they have temporarily under their purview.
There is no such thing as a social contract in our unregulated corporate economy. We have voted for successive governments to cede control to the donors and corporate boards in how our economy operates and who benefits. And its not run for non wealthy inhabitants of Aotearoa that much is clear.
NZers could have put in couple thousand dollar each and bought the company
Your multiplication ability is flawed or you know that a big part of the population doesn’t have a spare thousand dollars, 5.3 million times 1 thousand=$5.3 billion.
I don’t use dairy products so I certainly wouldn’t buy shares in the dairy industry no matter how profitable it claims to be.
Back in the day cow cockies were owner/operators. That’s the history of dairy farming in NZ. Verging on myth now. We now have a cooperative, presumably with a good many owner/operators joining up – not all as besides Fonterra there are other players in the milk market. What I dont know is the current composition of Fonterra. Predominately owner/operators? Share milking arrangements? Or increasing corporate owned farms with managers?
NZ has so many myths, perpetuated through a narrative of colonial history. The dairy industry is upheld as being the backbone of the NZ economy with the dairy farmers themselves as the hard working cow cockies but I’m pretty sure its not the same as in my gandfather’s day.
What you call the cow cockies supplied the local dairy co-op of which there were many around NZ. They consolidated into 2 major players in the North Island, NZ Dairy group and Kiwi I think were the names, around Christchurch we had Tai Tapu Dairy which was in Moorhouse ave, Barry’s Bay Cheese and the town supply on Blenheim Rd. Gradually they combined or stopped producing if they were not profitable till we ended up with Fonterra and the other dairy companies we have today. The co-op’s used to sell through the NZDB which became part of Fonterra from what I understand although I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the details at the time. This is a very brief explanation so my apologies for all the details that have been missed out.
First question why is this bounty TAX FREE! Again, isn’t this just the tip of the iceberg and the reason we have such an enormous divide between the HAVE’s and HAVE NOT’s? It is almost obscene. Farming is no longer the backbone of NZ and this action is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. But when the source of income dries up and there is no safety net, ie when overseas markets make synthetic milk powder, you will realise how selfish your decision was and the consequences. And all this while in denial re polluting our waterways and land, then squirming out of paying for that pollution! Just letting you know……….we can see how this will end – in tears!
As someone wiser than me once said:
“Never bet against cynical self-interest” 🙁
It’s so shortsighted and stupid to sell those brands. It’s all they would’ve had left after precision fermentation makes all their cows redundant.
At least at that point, we will start to lower our GHG and nitrate emissions.
But the industrial dairy farmers will yet again come begging (demanding) taxpayer assistance.
Peters criticisms defined:
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/30/farmers-agree-to-sale-of-fonterras-consumer-brands/
…Speaking to 1News after being asked about Peters’ comments, McBride said farmers had made the decision today, which was not done lightly.
“Those comments are just hysterical nonsense to be honest,” he said.
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/571679/expert-warns-fonterra-putting-eggs-in-one-basket-with-billion-dollar-sale
…”We do need to consider what we’re giving up, these future earnings and value added that those brands, the policy now will be to focus down on their ingredients and food service.
“So, we’re putting our eggs in one basket and moving away from having a more diversified business.”
The sale included a 10 year agreement for Fonterra to sell milk and ingredients to Lactalis.
But Renwick said ingredients are easier to substitute than brands which leaves Fonterra exposed.
******
(This reminds me of the selling of local jam business made from from local berries, to French firm. The owners thought they were to provide berries and continue to be involved in just part of what they had previously, but no. They made mistakes in their dealings and ended up worse off. This could end up similarly on a larger scale despite how clever dairy farmers think they are.)
*****
Further coverage:
https://dairynews.today/milkypedia/person/peter_mcbride_5642930/
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Oct.17/25 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/576195/winston-peters-threatens-fonterra-over-sale-of-anchor-and-mainland-brands
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Oct.22/25https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/576616/why-is-fonterra-selling-off-its-dairy-brands-and-why-is-winston-peters-angry-about-it
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https://nzchinacouncil.org.nz/people/peter-mcbride/
He was previously a Director of the New Zealand International Business Forum and a member of the Executive Board of the New Zealand China Council.
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About McBride
https://livingheritage.lincoln.ac.nz/nodes/view/12590 – Peter James McBride
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/121952104/fonterra-names-peter-mcbride-as-new-chairman
…“I grew up on a dairy farm near Te Aroha and today my wife Linda and I run the family farm milking 950 cows in the South Waikato, so dairy has always been part of my life….
“I’m looking forward to working alongside John for the next few months before leading our Co-op into its next phase and creating value for the benefit of our farmer owners and unit holders.”
McBride is a former chairman of kiwifruit exporter Zespri, and was named the Deloitte Top 200 2018 New Zealand chairperson of the year.
He is also the chief executive of Trinity Lands, a farm-focused charitable business in the Waikato.
McBride is the grandson of Lichfield Lands and Longview Trust founder Robert Auld.
(Grandparent. https://youngcountry.co.nz/s2-ep1-rob-auld-auld-farm-distillery/
Also – trinitylands.co.nz
https://www.trinitylands.co.nz › about-us
About us – trinitylands.co.nz
Trinity Lands was formed by merging three foundational trusts, Lichfield Lands, Longview Trust, and Hillview Trust. The original trust was founded in 1951 with land cleared for sheep farming.
And – Land, farming and Christianity combine in a trinity of goodness!
https://www.3trustsscholarships.nz/about-us/
The vision for Lichfield Lands, Longview Trust and Hillview Trust from their establishment has been to grow the New Zealand church through the profits that they make. They have been investing profits from their farming practices into Christian work and serving their local communities since 1951. It is this vision that has allowed the establishment of these three scholarships in the hope that Christian leaders may be developed, trained and released for the building up of God’s kingdom in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Is this a fount of Bill English’s Christian values?)
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Comparison to the past: I’ve been reading Regency (early 1800s) romances which are based on real history giving them interesting integrity. They are focused on the lives of the lords and their estates and servants, also their tenant farmers who provided income to keep their great houses and expensive lifestyles. It seems to me that this privileged UK class is repeating itself in NZAO, though without the pride and attachment to an official noble family line and history. Some lords could be lax and gamble their estates away but still had a continuing attachment to their family line and descendants.
We on the opposite side, have those who have gained land and wealth, and are willing to sell off our country’s land and assets, with no consideration for future citizens’ concerns and living. We have acquired pseudo lords, a squirearchy or modern landed gentry. They are giving us the Highland Clearances process over the land we thought was our commons, and left us with a doubtful future ahead. Real Jack and the Beanstalk stuff. NZAO is being sold for a bag of beans, numbers on a screen, evading the implicit promise that we had a stake in our own country. We need to think now, as from The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel: https://www.paulsimon.com/track/the-boxer/
I am just a poor boy
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest…
They replace hips so its time the backbone was replaced
The average dairy farm owner is 58 years old. They will be sweet with their $400,000 retirement nest egg.
Time will tell how this dumbarse asset strip will affect annual dairy revenues for their sons and daughters, the sharemilking cow owners, the Indians, Phillipinos and and Chileans who milk the cows and the wider provincial economy. Likely not well.
In ten years it won’t matter, precision fermentation will force the cow cockies to use the land for some other purpose.It won’t be milk and although NZ will be poorer at least the nitrate poisoning will stop. Letting go of the brands will eventually be seen as stupid. What a shame that we have such a lack of vision in our corporate leaders.