Fonterra Cooperative Group has tapped the president of its China operations, Kelvin Wickham, to head up the newly created global ingredients

The mood among farmers at this year’s annual national Fieldays was buoyant, despite the prospect of a drop in the dairy payout in the coming year, event organisers said.

Fonterra has been slapped with a $150,000 fine for breaching disclosure requirements to the NZX over the botulism false alarm last August.

It's the $64 billion question - can New Zealand double its primary exports in the next decade without causing unacceptable harm to the environment?

Nutricia, the New Zealand infant formula unit of French food maker Danone, posted a 97 per cent drop in profit in 2013.

The value of primary exports will fall from unusually high levels over the 2014/15 year before recovering steadily in the following three years.

Liam Dann asks, "How worried should we be about the slump in global dairy prices? After all these years, NZ is still a giant grass-processing factory and milk remains the lifeblood of our economy."

The ink is barely dry on Fonterra's milk price forecast for 2014/15 and there are already signs that it could be revised downwards.

Signs of normality returned to the dairy sector yesterday when Fonterra forecast a $7 a kg farmgate milk price for 2014-15.

Fonterra has set an opening milk price of $7.00 per kg of milksolids for the 2014/15 season and revised down its forecast for the current season.

Farm investment company MyFarm expects Fonterra to announce a $6.60 to $6.80 a kg milk price for the 2014/15 year when the co-operative issues its forecasts this morning.

Rogue dairy farmers exploiting migrant workers have no place in the industry, a senior farming leader says.

Dairy farmers can expect to see a drop in the milk price to around $7 a kg of milk solids .

Labour's Shadow Minister of Finance David Parker looked the part in delivering his party's monetary policy.

Judith Collins has confirmed she has suffered a health scare but says she has had encouraging results from recent medical tests.

Graeme Wheeler pointedly reminded us of his power to intervene if the kiwi dollar continues to climb while export commodity prices fall, writes Brian Fallow.

The kiwi dollar dropped half a cent after the Reserve Bank governor said the bank may sell the currency should it remain high while export prices weaken.

The fate of many New Zealand infant formula brands remains up in the air - a week after strict new Chinese import regulations came into force.

A subdued but defiant Judith Collins endured a flurry of Opposition attacks over her Oravida connections in a torrid session in Parliament this afternoon.

Prolific and combative tweeter Judith Collins is quitting the Twittersphere - saying it's "not a good space to be".

Kiwi infant formula could end up stuck on Chinese wharves - like Kiwi meat exports last year, says the head of an industry group.

Oravida donated $30,000 to National just days after Chinese authorities granted the firm the clearance for its milk imports that it had sought NZ govt help to gain.