Fonterra opens season with forecast $10/kg milk price, new emissions incentives

Fonterra's opening forecast Milk Price is $10 per kgMS for 2025/26.

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The 2025/26 dairy season has started strong, with Fonterra announcing an opening forecast Farmgate Milk Price of $10.00 per kgMS.

This sits within a wide forecast range of $8.00-$11.00 per kgMS.

This was exciting news, but there were still concerns on the horizon, Fonterra’s Group Director of Farm Source, Anne Douglas, said.

“While we expect demand to continue really well, there is clearly still some ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and so with that forecast, we had quite a wide range,” she explained to The Country Sport Breakfast’s Brian Kelly.

“That just reflects that volatility that we still see in the market ahead.”

Despite this, Douglas said the co-op continued to focus on delivering the strongest farmer offering.

She said “some other cool stuff” was also coming up for farmers this season.

This included changes to the Co-operative Difference payment structure and customer-funded incentives.

Farmers who meet a certain criterion within the Co-operative Difference framework can receive a new Emissions Excellence achievement.

“That could result in an additional payment of 1 to 5 cents [per kgMS] for them,” Douglas said.

The customer-funded incentives will be split between on-farm solutions and an Emissions Incentive payment of between 10-25 cents per kgMS for farms with the lowest emissions footprints in the co-op.

Douglas said farmers who achieved the Co-operative Difference would also be eligible for access to on-farm solutions.

“[These are] tools and services that we know they can use that will help improve the efficiency on the farm and ultimately look to reduce their emissions footprint.”

Douglas said the Farm Source team was committed to supporting farmers every step of the way.

“[We’ve] got our people who will be out there, quality specialists, sustainable dairy advisors, and farmer support advisors making sure that our farmers are set up well for the season.”

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Meanwhile, Fieldays is just around the corner, and farmers can find the Fonterra site on the corner of F Street and K Road.

“We love being at Fieldays and we’re excited for next week,” Douglas said.

She said the site was open to all.

“We really just encourage everyone to come along this year.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to connect with both our shareholders and members of the public next week.”