By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Fertiliser sales - the barometer of the rural economy - are booming.
The big companies, South Island-headquartered Ravensdown Fertiliser and Bay of Plenty-based Ballance Agri-Nutrients, have reported a significant lift in sales.
Ballance said its sales were up more than 20 per cent in the three months to August.
Ravensdown said
farmers had bought 18 per cent more fertiliser compared with last year and it had a 19 per cent increase in sales.
Ballance chairman Peter Jensen said the sales indicated that farmers were confidently investing in farm inputs to take full advantage of available returns.
Rebates and dividend payments of more than $20 million went to the company's 17,000 shareholders last week.
Ravensdown chairman Jim Pringle said fertiliser was an extremely good barometer of the farming industry's health "and that barometer is showing things are going very well".
The cooperative made a profit of more than $24 million, up $2 million compared with last year, and was paying a return to shareholders of $15 a tonne.
Meanwhile, farmer-owned bobby calf processing cooperative Dairy Meats reported one of its best financial results, with a pre-tax surplus of $12.9 million on revenue of $85.85 million.
Its payout to supplier-shareholders was 130 per cent up on the previous year and the highest since 1989.
