Letting Fonterra set milk prices makes it poacher and gamekeeper

Agriculture minister Damien O’Connor is taking a halfway house approach. (Image: NZ Herald)

Mon, 01 Aug 2022

Does Fonterra manipulate the price of milk?Certainly, there is plenty of evidence in the past that it’s been guilty of doing so.As I’ve previously reported, Jarden analyst Arie Dekker has argued the growth of independent processors is proof that Fonterra hasn’t been manipulating the price.But who’s to say the market share gains of the independents could or should have been even greater if Fonterra hadn’t had so much control over setting the milk price?It’s ironic that the most blatant incident of Fonterra man...

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