Fonterra Expects NZ Dairy Farmers to Spend After Record Payout
Cows in a holding pen at a dairy farm in Hawera, New Zealand.
Photographer: Brendon O'Hagan/Bloomberg
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to start spending again after a record milk payment, Fonterra Cooperative Group Chair Peter McBride said, in what would be a welcome boost for the nation’s sluggish economy.
Farmers have been reducing debt and catching up with deferred maintenance and are now likely to start investing in new plant and machinery, benefiting local economies, McBride said Thursday in an interview after Auckland-based Fonterra posted full-year results.