The largest global supplier of wool socks in the active outdoor market wants to step up its wool contract with New Zealand merino growers, worth more than $100 million the last nine years. A top executive team from the United States company SmartWool will meet wool farmers at a North Canterbury function centre on Monday reports Stuff.

The company has indicated it will extend orders for New Zealand- grown merino and mid-micron wool in its partnership with The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) from double-digit growth projected each year for the next three years. SmartWool will go into more detail at the meeting about its increasing demand for 18 to 26 micron wool and give farmers volume and price projections for its wool requirements to meet growing orders.

(more…)

Crossbred wool auction prices have stabilised after making a strong recovery from the lows of last year’s world recession reports Business Day. Prices for best-style clean fleece and second shear are up 20% to $3.50 a kilogram on prices in July and August; good lamb’s wool is up 15% to $4.30 and oddments are up 30% to $2.70.

Wool was last at these levels towards the end of 2008 when it was on its way down from a high of $4 a kilogram at the height of the world commodities boom. Wool exports earned NZ $576 million in the year to March last year and the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry estimated in July 2009 that this year’s export returns would fall to $458m.

(more…)

Commentators are continuing to express confidence in the future of the meat industry, more so than farmers. Rabobank’s Australian-based animal protein senior analyst, Wendy Voss, told farmers in Central Otago last week that demand for all meat was expected to grow 20% in the next decade, at a time supplies were forecast to continue falling reports The ODT.

That extra demand would come from developing nations and would outstrip supply, Ms Voss said. “The outlook for Australia and NZ sheep meat and beef is very positive,” she told 300 farmers at the SI High Country committee’s biennial field day in the Nevis Valley. Ms Voss said fluctuating prices had caused a global decline in the supply of sheep meat and beef.

(more…)

A return to the days of many farms being converted to dairying is not expected, a leading rural financier says in The ODT. Rabobank senior protein analyst Hayley Moynihan said a more conservative approach by farmers, tighter credit and lower farm values would not see a return “to the heady days of new dairy conversions”.

However, milk prices would see most farmers return to cash profitability this year and, if expenditure was controlled, potentialprofits would be comparable to 2007-08, she said. Mrs Moynihan expected milk production to grow 2% this year due to herd expansion, feed supplements and moderate climatic conditions over most of the country.

(more…)

Real estate agents not establishing the credibility of purchasers is a major hole being highlighted by Federated Farmers. This follows reports a $150 million ‘deal’ for 28 Southland farms has collapsed. “When a simple Google search revealed a convicted Australian criminal was associated with the people fronting this deal, you can see why Fed Farmers was more than sceptical,” says David Rose, Federated Farmers rural security spokesperson.

“There were a number of red flags associated with the supposed purchaser too. It included reported claims from late last year that the Northland hapu involved had genealogical connections to its Arab partner ‘that went back to biblical times’. “While Federated Farmers backs moves to bring professional standards of conduct to the real estate industry, a failure to do some cursory checks is of concern.

(more…)

A “stable” result from Fonterra’s online global auction was a good result, reports Paul Grave “globalDairyTrade“  manager. Most interest was on how the first sale of Skim milk powder would feature at auction, in a period where prices have appeared flat. But the result of an average price of US $2927 per tonne was in line with recent sales and reflected a stable price indication in the market.

 Buyers seem to focus on the short to medium term with their purchases. Whole milk powder bucked the recent weak trend in prices with a 0.8% ($25/t) rise in value to US$3218 but Anhydrous milk fat fell by 5.4% to US$3959 per tonne. The next auction will be held on April the 6th.

I admit to being sceptical about the latest efforts to find a way to dig wool prices from the trough they have fallen into over the past 40 years.After being studied by committees, consultants, a network and a task force, the NZ industry is still floundering. Now, the problem is to be put into the hands of one person, a sort of “wool czar”. He has my deepest sympathies.

The appointment, yet to be made, follows the release of a report by a task force set up by Agriculture Minister David Carter reports The Dom Post. It concluded that the industry’s large number of interest groups did not share a “co-ordinated, overarching vision or strategy” and recommended establishing a marketing group that could leverage government funds for “partnerships in market-led wool research and innovation projects”.

(more…)

New Zealand Wool Services International Ltd reports that prices eased for most types at today’s wool sales reports Scoop. In the combined auction of North and South Island wool in Napier and Christchurch, 81 per cent of the wool on offer sold. However, at 28,000 bales, this offering was 28 per cent above the original rostered quantity, which had an impact on prices.

Compared to the previous sale, on 18 February, the New Zealand dollar has eased in value against a weighted indicator of the main international wool trading currencies, but the increased volumes coming forward neutralised the currency effect. A shortage of shipping capacity, caused by freighting providers slashing their services in response to the global recession, means wool exporters are unable to secure sufficient space, which in turn restricts their ability to purchase wool on the local market.
According to New Zealand Wool Services International, a small offering of finer crossbred fleece resisted this trend and stayed generally firm to six per cent dearer, with the very fine types benefiting the most. For detailed sale data  look here<<<<<

(more…)

Fonterra wants other large dairy companies to join its website auction for milk powder reports The Manawatu Standard. The co-operative is now selling about 20 per cent of the milk powder it produces on globalDairyTrade, but it wants to expand the web-selling mechanism. The trade manager of globalDairyTrade, Paul Grave, said web sales were a tool to manage global uncertainty over dairy prices.

“In forward sales, someone wins and someone loses. If a customer loses, they are not happy and Fonterra doesn’t want an unhappy customer. If Fonterra loses, our shareholders aren’t happy.” The price of milk powder used to change by a few hundred United States dollars a month, but now it can be US$600, Mr Grave said. “We can’t live with those fluctuations.”

(more…)

Prospective buyers have shown interest in a cluster of 29 Graeme Hart-owned dairy farms around Tokoroa, but real estate agents are yet to close any deals. Carter Holt Harvey spokesman Ross Townshend told the Waikato Times there had been interest in four of the 29 farms which are on the market through Bayleys and PGG Wrightson for a combined $224.5 million.

Mr Townshend’s comments came after only 47 farms sold in January, about a quarter of the norm, only seven of which were dairy farms. The CHH farms, offered for between $5.1m and $10.4m each, support a total of 20,000 cows and produce 6,641,200 kilograms of milksolids. The Waikato Times understands an offer from a Chinese syndicate was rejected.

(more…)