28th May 2026 // Rural News in partnership with Farmlands
* Fonterra opens new season with nine-seventy-five forecast
* Ministry for the Environment scrapped after forty years
* Hormuz closure could push diesel crisis levels by mid-year
Rural News is in partnership with Farmlands as part of CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp - our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch / listen.
Fonterra opens new season with nine-seventy-five forecast
Fonterra has opened the new dairy season with a farmgate milk price forecast of nine dollars and seventy-five cents per kilogram of milk solids, within a wide range of eight dollars to eleven dollars.
The opening forecast sits at the upper end of bank forecasts and above the current milk price futures market, which recently traded at nine-seventy. New chief executive Richard Allen says strong demand and well-contracted sales underpin the opening range, despite ongoing Middle East disruption adding cost pressure and shipping uncertainty.
For the season just ending, Fonterra narrowed its forecast to between nine-sixty and nine-eighty, with the midpoint unchanged at nine-seventy.
The co-op also reported third-quarter results on Thursday, with total group operating profit of one-point-eight billion dollars — up one-hundred-and-three million on the prior year. Season-to-date milk collections are up four percent at one-point-four billion kilograms of milk solids, with third quarter shipment volumes the highest in a decade.
Fonterra also confirmed it will expand its organic programme to the South Island, opening the new season with an organic forecast midpoint of fourteen dollars per kilogram of milk solids.
Ministry for the Environment scrapped after forty years
New Zealand's Ministry for the Environment has been disestablished after forty years, with legislation passing in Parliament on Wednesday night to make way for a new combined Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport.
Environment Minister Nicola Grigg says integrating the portfolios will support more practical and joined-up decision-making that protects the environment while supporting economic growth.
The Green Party has condemned the move, with environment spokesperson Lan Pham saying it cements the coalition as the most anti-environment government in New Zealand's history. She says at a time when freshwater, air, biodiversity and ocean outcomes are deteriorating, and climate change is flooding communities week after week, the Government's response is to dismantle the ministry responsible for environmental protection.
Hormuz closure could push diesel crisis levels by mid-year
New energy market analysis is warning that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could push diesel into crisis-level shortages by July — with devastating consequences for agriculture, logistics and the broader global economy.
New analysis now forecasts the closure extending through to September, with Brent crude expected to average one-hundred-and-twenty US dollars per barrel through the third quarter, potentially peaking at one-hundred-and-forty dollars.
For farmers and rural businesses, diesel is the number to watch. The analysis describes diesel as the single most important price in the supply shock — inelastic, essential for logistics and agriculture, and the point at which if prices rise far enough, the broader economy starts to crumble.
Even if the Strait reopens in September, analysts warn damaged refinery infrastructure, a dislocated tanker fleet and depleted global inventories mean supply will remain tight well into 2027.
See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.
