Do we like them?

Do we like Fonterra?

New Zealand farmer-owned dairy co-op selling milk ingredients and foodservice products worldwide; based in Auckland, NZ

Our score: 4 out of 10. A big, farmer-owned dairy exporter that is cutting coal and has paid for pollution. It is still NZ's biggest emitter, so we'd back it only with caution.

Fonterra is New Zealand's dairy giant, owned by its farmer suppliers. It collects milk from roughly 8,000 farming families and is the country's largest exporter. In 2026 it handed over to a new CEO, Richard Allen, who joined as a graduate in 2008. Chair Peter McBride led the search.

The big change was selling the consumer arm to France's Lactalis. Anchor, Mainland and Kāpiti went in a deal that completed in March 2026 for NZ$4.22b. Farmers voted for it, and Fonterra says it will keep supplying Lactalis with milk. Fonterra is now a B2B ingredients business.

The environment is the main worry. Reports describe Fonterra as NZ's single biggest emitter. It has vowed to quit coal by 2037, and it has now ditched coal at all its North Island plants. It also has a 50.4% emissions-cut target for 2030. Green groups say it's still far from a climate leader.

There's a pollution history too. In 2015 an Environment Court judge found Fonterra guilty over the Eltham buttermilk stink and fined it $192,000. Days earlier it was fined $170,000 over wastewater into the Rangitaiki River. The judge called it a "laggard" when it should lead. That was a decade ago, but it's on the record.

Our score is 4. Fonterra is moving in the right direction and the farmer-owned model is a plus. But the emissions are huge, the climate case is heading to trial, and the fines are on file. We'd want to see coal gone before we backed it more warmly.