Fonterra

Fonterra has hiked its forecast farm-gate milk price to a record $8.65 per kg of milk solids, with the 35c increase equating to an increase in dairy incomes of about $600 million.

The recent steep pick-up in Fonterra's cheese and casein stream prices may be running out of steam, ASB rural economist Nathan Penny says.

Alliance Group chairman Murray Taggart is standing by his comment that Fonterra director John Monaghan has withdrawn from the director appointment process - despite Mr Monaghan maintaining he has not.

Fonterra director John Monaghan has decided to pull out of a process to appoint an independent director to the board of Alliance Group, chairman Murray Taggart says.

Prices lifted 1.4% in this week's GlobalDairyTrade auction with an apparent convergence in product prices being cited as encouraging for Fonterra.

Fonterra has raised 1.25 billion Chinese renminbi (about $NZ250 million) through a five-year ''dim sum'' bond issue, to strengthen and support its China business.

Federated Farmers believes Fonterra's recall of thousands of bottles of cream shows the dairy giant's quality assurance systems work - but Labour says questions will again be raised about New Zealand's food safety systems.

Dairy products are open to E.coli contamination because of the prevalence of the bacteria in animal waste, one disease expert says.

A long legal battle could ensue following French dairy giant Danone's decision to launch legal action against Fonterra over last year's botulism scare.

Fonterra will "vigorously defend"court action French food giant Danone is bringing against it in the wake of the botulism scare and says it is confident of its position.