By contrast, last week Fonterra offered a range of between $$6.25-$7.25 per kg/MS for the new season, citing the difficulties of forecasting accurately 15 months in advance of the final price.
“We are giving farmers a wide range for the opening forecast milk price. It will be narrowed as the season goes on,” chairman John Monaghan said.
Waikato niche operator Tatua, with just 107 suppliers, has long been the leader in its milk prices to farmers, its opening $8 forecast lifting from $7.50 for the current season which officially ends on Friday.
Last year Tatua achieved record group revenue of $357 million, and earnings of $127m.
“Our focus on growing our value-add businesses has contributed significant additional revenue and our bulk ingredient product mix has served us well, ” chairman Stephen Allen said.
The $8 Tatua is offering to farmers does not include retentions, which last year amounted to 62 cents, of which 52c was retained for investment and 10c handed out.
Synlait also announced its forecast base milk price for the 2018- 2019 season had increased from $6.25 kgMS to $6.40 kgMS.
“The increase to $6.40 kgMS for this season is due to recovering dairy commodity prices since our last update in January 2019,” Synlait chief executive Leon Clement said. ”
“We’ve seen steady improvements in prices since the start of December, recovering a lot of the ground lost earlier in the season.”
Meanwhile Synlait is in the throes of dealing with a setback over its yet-to-be-completed Pokeno factory. In early May the Court of Appeal reinstated covenants over land Synlait bought in February 2018.
The covenants allowed the Synlait land to be used only for farming, lifestyle blocks or forestry.