Fonterra directors said today the cooperative's record milk payout this season will be $7.90/kg of milk solids, up from its earlier forecast of $7.30/kg.
The company also announced its initial forecast for the 2008-09 season is for a payout of: $7.00/kg
The 2006-2007 payout was $4.46/kg, and Fonterra's previous record payout, $5.33/kg in 2002, was worth $6.14/kg in 2007 dollars.
Some Fonterra farmers have investments in three or four farms and will collect multi-million dollar payouts.
A 1c/kg lift in payout is worth around $1000 to the "average" farmer and today's hike is expected to lift the average farmer payout for the 2007-08 season to around $800,000.
