If you fly over New Zealand and look down you quickly realise we are basically just one very big farm, and a lot of that is dairy. So why is the price of butter now over $11 and rising and almost twice the price of the equivalent weight of cheese.
The Big Butter Boys at Fonterra might have something to do with it. CEO Mike Hurrell earned $4.6million last year so he has to struggle along on just $88,000 a week which is only $2,200 and hour. Perhaps he should be paid in butter (418,181 packs). The Fonterra directors also just got a hefty increase in their stipend and get $191,000 but to be fair they do have to turn up to 12 meetings a year so that’s only about $16,000 a meeting and some of the meetings can last a couple of hours. Perhaps they should also be paid in butter.
Fonterra has reported strong financial results for the 2023/24 financial year, with a profit after tax of $1.168 billion and in the year ended July 2024, Fonterra announced a net profit after tax of around $1.13 billion. So perhaps that helps explain why in the world’s largest dairy farm the inhabitants are struggling to pay for butter.
Surely the Supermarkets will come to the rescue – No.
The grocery sector in New Zealand is now worth $25 billion and Grocery Commissioner, Pierre van Heerden, says a recent report painted a “concerning picture” of the sector – with increasing retail margins, continued high levels of profitability, and ongoing dominance of the industry by the major supermarkets.
Meanwhile shoppers are turning away from butter as prices soar – and there’s a warning retail prices could get another dollar higher.
Perhaps when the PM gave advice for school lunches ‘just make them a marmite sandwich’ he meant without butter.