https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/116880363/fonterra-raises-alarm-over-factory-closures-if-rules-dont-change

Sorry I thought I had put the link in there. See above link 😀

It's probably about time we reconsider some of these rules. Why do we want to force Fonterra to supply milk to Chinese companies at cost price, at the beck and call of said companies? Fonterra are still dominant at this stage but I'd hate to see the Chinese government take over our agriculture industry, and we know that's exactly what they'd like to do. Also seems a good thing to allow Fonterra to refuse milk supply from farmers who don't meet environmental standards.

Linux: Cry me a river! Hope soon we pay overseas pricing for New Zealand milk

What do you mean exactly? I think you'll find the price milk in the supermarket is largely controlled by the supermarket chain. Other than that the price of milk products is set on the world market. The price we pay is already heavily influenced by overseas pricing.

An interesting article here about why we pay through the nose for milk.

And yes, it would appear whilst the Supermarkets are creaming it, they buy from Fonterra (and others), and Fonterra sets the price based upon what it can get from International markets.

Because there's a relative monopoly on milk supply thanks to Fonterra and a duopoly on the Supermarket chains.

This pretty much sums it up:

Jessica Wilson, Consumer NZ's head of research, said what New Zealand paid was skewed by international prices because so much of what was produced here was turned into commodities for export.

"But the price we pay also reflects the concentrated nature of our market. Our domestic milk market is dominated by one big supplier, Fonterra, and two big supermarket chains, which means there's little competition for your dairy dollar."

In short, consumers get shafted because we're such a small market and the existing players have way too much power that competitors wouldn't bother making an entrance.

I don't know the law, but looks like:

 - farmers can choose to sell their milk to anyone at the cost that suits them
 - fonterra has to buy milk at market price, if NZ farmers could not find better options

which leads to fonterra's factories not working at full capacity all year long, their ROI is low and they seek law change to protect the business, not the farmers (another business).

is that it?