Testing for a toxic agricultural substance in New Zealand dairy products has found no traces of it after mid-November last year.

The hot dry summer in the North Island is helping to push world dairy prices up - but the high kiwi dollar is taking the cream off the top.

In the fifth straight gain, prices in the latest world dairy auction rose 3.1 per cent overnight, takings prices to their highest level in five months.

A secret Auckland Council agenda item has revealed the Wynyard Quarter as a possible site for Fonterra's planned new $100 million campus-style world HQ.

When the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund made its debut on the NZX last December, the co-operative was finally able to put its capital structure on a firm footing.

Dry weather and the high kiwi dollar are causing "a deepening pessimism" to spread among sheep and beef farmers.

The words "New Zealand" have to be synonymous with food safety. The country cannot afford its reputation as a pure and wholesome food producer to be tarnished.

Hot, dry weather has many Bay of Plenty dairy farmers struggling to make ends meet as Tauranga stares down the barrel of the third driest month in living memory.

A New Zealand exporter selling infant formula in China says the latest agricultural chemical issue is a public relations disaster and sales have fallen "to zero".

New Zealand Ambassador Carl Worker's fulsome apology for the "confusion" caused to Chinese consumers over the detection of DCD residues in New Zealand-sourced milk is clearly an attempt to stop the trade risk to New Zealand dairy exports escalating in Chi

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the co-operative often leads the way in developing food standards.

A trial involving five parties linked to the running of Crafar Farms who face hundreds of charges between them of animal abuse has been postponed.

The signs are mildly positive for the dairy and beef sectors this year, but the outlook for sheep farmers does not look quite so rosy.

Yashili International Holdings is the latest Chinese company looking to invest in New Zealand.

Investment in New Zealand dairy farming will step up this year after the sector attracted strong interest in 2012.

This has been another testing year for New Zealand businesses as they rock along the decade of "grumpy growth".

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done, New Zealand business?

The face of New Zealand business changed over 2012 with a series of senior appointments made to some of the country's top jobs.

World dairy prices have risen in the last online auction of the year.