The company said, despite ongoing Covid-19 related disruptions and shipping challenges, the business has had another good year, achieving group income of $444 million and earnings available for payout of $186 million.

A dry autumn saw supply drop 6 percent on the previous season to 14.71 million kilograms of milk solids but earnings equated to $12.65 p/kg of shareholder supplied milksolids – an improvement on the previous year earnings of $10.43.

“We have confirmed a cash payout to shareholders of $11.30 per kilogram of milksolids supplied and have retained $1.35 per kilogram of milksolids, equivalent to $19.85 million before tax, for reinvestment in the business.

“In deciding our payout, we were very conscious of the sharp increases in on-farm costs being experienced by our shareholders, as well as the requirement for continued investment in the business and maintaining balance sheet resilience in what remains an uncertain economic and global trade environment,” Tatua chairman Stephen Allen said.

In addition to achieving record income and earnings, good progress has been made in many areas of the business, including a number of significant capital projects and business improvement initiatives, that together, have once again made for a very complete year, Allen said.

In comparison Fonterra and Synliat paid its suppliers $9.30p/kg for the 2021-22 season.