Neal Wallace

Predictions the New Zealand export lamb crop will be six million fewer this year than last, have been confirmed with Meat and Wool New Zealand forecasting a 23.2% drop in the number available for slaughter.

It has been a tough few years for honey producers.

Crashing international dairy prices have wiped $2 billion off the New Zealand economy in the last year, with Fonterra yesterday reducing its forecast payout to farmers this season from $6.60 a kg of milk solids (m/s) to $6.

A proposed $4 million redevelopment of the Auto Court car sales site in Crawford St will create two new bulk retail stores.

The Department of Labour is urging farmers to be more concerned with safety as it investigates three fatal crashes on Waitaki Valley farms and a serious accident in South Otago in just over a month.

Fonterra is expected on Friday to revise down by at least 30c a kilo its forecast payout for this season in what would be a $100 million blow to the economy.

Fonterra will consolidate its Dunedin cool and dry store operations on the Fisher and Paykel site at North Taieri, creating more than 30 new jobs in the process.

The Alliance Group has confirmed just how profitable last season was for the meat industry, reporting a massive jump in its operating profit from $16 million to $68 million on the back of more stock processed and better prices.

It sounds like something out of a Patricia Cornwell forensic crime novel. All food leaves a customised fingerprint and a group of Dunedin scientists and businessmen are tapping into that science to satisfy consumer concerns about food safety.

The cost of shifting manufacturing offshore pushed Fisher and Paykel Appliances into the red for the first half of this financial year.

Federated Farmers will push the new National-led Government to exclude food production from the Kyoto Protocol.