Quebec dairy giant Saputo hopes to eventually cut about $7 million in annual costs by closing three dairy plants in Eastern Canada before the end of next year. The Montreal company announced Tuesday it will close the former Scotsburn milk plant at Sydney, N.S. in June, the Fromagerie Madame Chevre specialty cheese plant at Princeville, […] Read more
Saputo to shut three dairy plants in East
International dairy prices, volumes fall at auction
Wellington | Reuters –– International dairy prices fell overnight at the fortnightly GlobalDairyTrade auction, despite market expectations that prices might rise. Fonterra’s GlobalDairyTrade Price Index dipped 2.9 per cent, with an average selling price of $2,190 per tonne, in the auction held on Tuesday (all figures US$). A total of 20,406 tonnes was sold at […] Read more
Arla CEO says world dairy market in crisis
Copenhagen | Reuters –– Arla Foods, one of Europe’s biggest dairy companies, said on Wednesday the global milk market was in crisis due to oversupply, but it expected demand, particularly from China, to pick up at the end of the year. Headquartered in Denmark, Arla is Britain’s largest and the world’s seventh-largest dairy company. It […] Read more
Agropur plans three years of deeper cost cuts
Having beat a three-year, $75 million goal for cost cuts, Canadian dairy co-operative Agropur has set the bar at nine figures for the next three-year period. The Quebec-based co-op on Wednesday booked net earnings of $47.5 million on sales of $5.875 billion in its fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2015, up from $38.31 million on […] Read more
Agropur eyes further U.S. acquisitions
Reuters — Canada’s second-biggest dairy, Agropur Co-operative, said it is looking to grow in the U.S., possibly through acquisitions, in the face of an expected erosion of its market share at home due to recent international trade deals. Agropur, whose brands include Iogo yogurt and Oka cheese, and larger rival Saputo have already built U.S. […] Read more
Saputo earnings up with weaker loonie
Reuters — Saputo, one of Canada’s largest dairy producers, reported higher than expected adjusted earnings on Thursday, helped by weakness in the Canadian dollar. For its fiscal third quarter, adjusted net income rose 13.5 per cent to $175.4 million, or 44 cents a share. Revenue during the quarter, which ended Dec. 31, rose 2.8 per […] Read more
Louis Dreyfus ring-fences some units, considers options
London | Reuters — Louis Dreyfus Commodities is ring-fencing its crop inputs, metals, juice and dairy units and is considering options ranging from joint ventures to the sale of certain assets, a senior company source said. In December, Reuters reported the trade house had been seeking buyers for its juice and fertilizer units for some […] Read more
EU to review use of last-resort antibiotic on farms
London | Reuters — European drug regulators launched a review on Jan. 11 of the use in farming of a key last-line antibiotic called colistin, after international research found alarming evidence of a gene that makes bacteria resistant to the drug. The London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was responding to a European Commission […] Read more
Free business analysis program available for dairy producers
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Agriculture and Forestry is once again offering the Dairy Cost Study program to Alberta producers. “With changes in today’s environment and economy, there seems to be renewed interest in building business plans, following cost of production and getting adequate returns for that production,” said Pauline Van Biert, a provincial research analyst. “The Dairy Cost […] Read more
Global dairy prices unexpectedly fall in overnight auction
Wellington | Reuters — Global dairy prices unexpectedly eased in the overnight GlobalDairyTrade auction, a platform established by New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter. Fonterra’s GDT Price Index dipped 1.6 per cent, with an average selling price of $2,458 per tonne, in the auction held Tuesday (all figures US$). Whole milk […] Read more
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