Milk price comparison: Fonterra beats Bega and Saputo
Fonterra leads on farmgate price ahead of rivals Saputo and Bega, but all dairy processors are struggling. See the latest milk price comparison.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has beat its major rivals to top the milk price pool, despite embattled Canadian processor Saputo’s recent 10-cent step up.
Milk2Market’s latest milk price comparison has Fonterra offering $9.52 a kilogram of milk solids for farmers delivering two million litres, followed by Bega Cheese on $9.45/kgMS, with Saputo on $9.40/kgMS.
Competition among processors for farmers’ milk was already strong heading into this season, but La Nina-driven floods and heavy rain swamped pastures and drove national milk production down 6.5 per cent to the end of October.
If the trend continues Australian dairy farmers will produce just 7.99 billion litres this season, compared to 8.55 billion in 2021-22 and 9.8 billion seven years ago.
Processors have not been able to run their processing plants at anywhere near capacity and have also been hard hit by the global energy crisis.
Diesel price hikes have driven up transport costs, while gas, used in evaporators to make milk powders, has soared to record levels.
While Saputo, Bega Cheese and Fonterra negotiate their own contract gas prices with suppliers, recently gazetted standard contract rates show AGL has lifted its weighted average small business tariffs by 22 per cent, Energy Australia by 35.9 per cent and Alinta Energy by a whopping 67.9 per cent.
Saputo has already rationalised its transport fleet and announced the closure of its Maffra plant and its bulk powders production at Leongatha, both of which use huge amounts of gas in their evaporators.